Kaye's wild buckwheat

Herbs, spreading, not scapose, (2-)3-4.5 × 1-2(-3) dm, glabrous. Stems spreading, without persistent leaf bases, up to 3 height of plant; caudex stems absent; aerial flowering stems erect, slender, solid, not fistulose, 1-2 dm, pubescent among leaves. Leaves basal or sheathing up stem 1-3 cm, 1 per node; petiole 2.5-4 cm, tomentose; blade narrowly elliptic, 2-5 × (0.8-)1-1.5(-1.7) cm, grayish-tomentose on both surfaces, margins plane. Inflorescences cymose, 10-25 × 5-15 cm; branches dichotomous, glabrous; bracts 3, scalelike, triangular, 2-3 mm. Peduncles erect, slender, 0.2-1 cm, glabrous. Involucres 1 per node, turbinate, 3.5-4 × 2-2.5 mm; teeth 5(-6), erect, 0.5-0.8 mm. Flowers 3.5-4 mm; perianth ochroleucous to pale yellow or, rarely, yellow, glabrous; tepals connate proximal 1/ 5, monomorphic, oblong; stamens exserted, 5-6 mm; filaments pilose proximally. Achenes light brown, 3.5-4 mm, glabrous.

Flowering Aug-Sep. Sandy to somewhat gravelly, volcanic slopes, mixed grassland and sagebrush communities, juniper woodlands; 1800-1900 m; Utah.

Eriogonum artificis is known from a single location near Frisco in Beaver County. Care must be taken not to confuse Kaye's wild buckwheat with glabrous forms of E. spathulatum that occur nearby. The flowers of E. artificis are usually pale yellow, but occasionally plants are found with cream-colored and distinctly yellow flowers.