''Eriogonum pusillum'' is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name yellowturbans. It is native to the western United States where it grows in sandy soils in a number of habitats, especially in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

and

Great Basin The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...

Description

This is a small annual herb reaching heights of anywhere from 5 to 30 centimeters. The woolly leaves are located at the base of the plant and are about a centimeter long and rounded. The spindly naked branches of the

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 ...

rise and branch, producing cup-shaped flower clusters at each node along the branches. Each tiny, glandular flower is about three millimeters wide at its maximum and turns from bright yellow to orange-red to red.

Desert tortoise

This is a food plant for the

desert tortoise The desert tortoise (''Gopherus agassizii'') is a species of tortoise in the Family (biology), family Testudinidae. The species is native to the Mojave Desert, Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico ...

(''Gopherus agassizii'').

External links

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