''Eriogonum lobbii'' is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Lobb's buckwheat or prostrate buckwheat. It is native to most of the mountain ranges of

northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

and their extensions into

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

and

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

. It is found in a number of mountain plant communities. The plant is named after William Lobb (1809–1864), the English plant collector.

Description

This is a low-lying perennial with a woody

caudex A caudex (: caudices) of a plant is a stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695 In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is most ...

spreading to about 40 centimeters in maximum width. It forms a patch of round, paddle-shaped, woolly, gray-green leaves one to twenty centimeters wide in rocky areas. Its

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

is rarely erect, instead drooping or extending parallel to the ground, rarely higher than 15 centimeters. At the end of each prostrate stem is a puffy, woolly, rounded cluster of flowers. Each flower is less than a centimeter wide, petals united in a 5-fold cup, and may be cream to yellowish or pink with red stripes. On level ground the flowerheads surround the cluster of basal leaves; on a hillside they all droop downhill.

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentPhoto gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5389402 lobbii Flora of California Flora of Nevada Flora of Oregon Flora of the Cascade Range Flora of the Great Basin Flora of the Klamath Mountains Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Flora without expected TNC conservation status