Wicker-stem wild buckwheat

Eriogonum shoshonense A. Nelson; E. vimenum subsp. shoshonense (A. Nelson) S. Stokes

Herbs, erect to slightly spreading, 0.5-3(-5) dm, thinly tomentose to floccose or glabrous, grayish or reddish gray. Stems: aerial flowering stems erect, 0.5-1 dm, thinly tomentose to floccose, infrequently glabrous, straight or nearly so, infrequently inwardly curved distally. Leaves basal; petiole 1-4 cm, mostly floccose; blade round-ovate to rounded, 0.5-2(-2.5) × 0.5-2 cm, white-tomentose abaxially, less so to nearly glabrous and grayish or greenish adaxially. Inflorescences cymose, often distally uniparous due to suppression of secondary branches, open to somewhat diffuse, 5-25 × 5-25 cm; branches floccose or glabrous; bracts 1-3 × 1-2 mm. Peduncles absent. Involucres appressed to branches, narrowly cylindric, 2-3.5(-4) × 1-2 mm, glabrous or infrequently floccose; teeth 5, erect, 0.3-0.6 mm. Flowers 2-2.5 mm; perianth white to rose or pale yellow, glabrous; tepals slightly dimorphic, those of outer whorl broadly spatulate to obovate, those of inner whorl oblanceolate; stamens included, 1-1.5 mm; filaments pilose proximally or glabrous. Achenes brown, 3-gonous, 2-2.5 mm. 2n = 24.

Flowering May-Sep. Sandy to gravelly flats and slopes, mixed grassland, saltbush, and sagebrush communities, oak, juniper, and montane conifer woodlands; 50-2400 m; Calif., Idaho, Nev., Oreg., Wash.

Eriogonum vimineum is widespread and common to abundant or even locally weedy from southeastern Washington southward through central and eastern Oregon and western Idaho to northeastern California and northern Nevada. Except for occasional populations in northeastern California, where it can be confused with E. luteolum, this species is distinct, albeit variable, throughout its range.