''Eriogonum maculatum'' is a species of wild

buckwheat Buckwheat (''Fagopyrum esculentum''), or common buckwheat, is a flowering plant in the knotweed family Polygonaceae cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. The name "buckwheat" is used for several other species, such as '' Fago ...

known by the common name spotted buckwheat. It is native to western North America from

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Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, where it can be found in a number of habitats, often in abundance.

Description

This is an erect annual herb reaching heights of anywhere from 5 to 40 centimeters. Most of the woolly leaves are located at the base of the plant, but there may be a few along the stem. The branching

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

holds many clusters of bright red and white striped flowers. Each flower is a few millimeters wide with distinctly cup-shaped

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s which are covered in minute spiky glands. The bright striping on the small tepals make the flower cluster look spotted from afar, hence its common name. It grows in sand, gravel or clay slopes and flats, grassland, and shrub-steppe.

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment - ''Eriogonum maculatum''''Eriogonum maculatum'' - Photo gallery
maculatum Flora of the Northwestern United States Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Great Basin Flora of California Natural history of the Santa Monica Mountains Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Polygonaceae-stub