10. Johanneshowellia Reveal, Brittonia. 56: 299. 2004.
Howell's-buckwheat [for John Thomas Howell, 1903-1994, California botanist and Eriogonum scholar]
James L. Reveal
Eriogonum Michaux [unranked] Puberula Rydberg, Fl. Rocky Mts., 211. 1917
Herbs, annual; taproot slender. Stems arising directly from the root, weakly erect to spreading, solid, not fistulose or disarticulating into ringlike segments, silky-puberulent. Leaves usually quickly deciduous, basal, rosulate; petiole present; blade obovate to rounded or somewhat reniform, margins entire. Inflorescences terminal, cymose; branches dichotomous or trichotomous at proximal node, otherwise dichotomous, not brittle or disarticulating into segments, round, silky-puberulent; bracts 3, connate proximally, triangular or linear to narrowly lanceolate, scalelike or somewhat leaflike, not awned, glabrous to puberulent. Peduncles absent. Involucral bracts obscure, in tight spiral of (3-)4(-7) distinct, oblanceolate to obovate lobes, bractlike, not awned. Flowers 4-7 per involucral cluster; perianth white or pale yellowish to rose or red, broadly campanulate when open, narrowly urceolate when closed, smooth or minutely pustulose abaxially, glabrous; tepals 6, connate 1/ 4 their length, monomorphic or slightly dimorphic, entire apically; stamens 9; filaments basally adnate, glabrous; anthers white to pale pink, oblong. Achenes included, light brown, not winged, 3-gonous, glabrous. Seeds: embryo curved.
Species 2 (2 in the flora): w United States.
With recognition of Johanneshowellia, all members of Eriogonum have their involucral bracts fused into a distinct, turbinate to campanulate or hemispheric, tubular structure. In Johanneshowellia, the four to seven, distinct, involucral bracts are arranged in a tight spiral. Each 0.5-1.2 mm, awnless, entire to deeply lobed bract subtends a flower-bearing pedicel. These involucral bracts are themselves usually obscured by inflorescence bracts that subtend each node. As a result, care must be taken to observe the true nature of the involucral complex. The genus is allied with Eriogonum subg. Oregonium.
