Southern wild buckwheat

Leaf blades broadly elliptic to spatulate, densely grayish-lanate on both surfaces. Flowers 4-5(-6) mm; perianth yellow or ochroleucous to rose-red, densely villous.

Flowering Apr-Jun. Sandy to gravelly or rocky flats and slopes, manzanita and sagebrush com-munities, oak and montane conifer woodlands; 1300-2500(-2900) m; Calif., Nev., Oreg.

Variety meridionale is found infrequently in five widely scattered areas. The northernmost is along the Jackson County, Oregon, and Siskiyou County, California, border. In the latter county, the variety is found also in the Marble Mountains area. It is seen occasionally in and near the Warner Mountains of Lake County, Oregon, and Modoc County, California. The plants are much more common along the eastern slope of the northern Sierra Nevada in Lassen County, Nevada, Plumas and Sierra counties, California, and in the Reno area of Washoe County, Nevada. The last and most restricted population is in the Intermountain Region near Pyramid Lake in Washoe County. Variety meridionale occasionally is seen in cultivation and is an ideal addition to any rock garden.