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Where the garden meets the wild |
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ERIOGONUM WILD BUCKWHEAT Polygonaceae (Buckwheat family) |
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Buckwheats glory in dry, meagre, sunbaked conditions. All 250-odd species
are native to North America. We find them associated with sagebrush at lower
elevations and on screes and bare ridges in the alpine. Both prostrate and
upright forms make excellent rock-garden plants. The leaves are usually
tomentose ~ silvered with fine hairs ~ at least on the underside. The flowers,
massed in balls or umbels,
usually start out cream to yellow, perhaps blushed with red, and ripen to
sunset rose, copper and pink. The individual flowers, held in a scalloped
involucre, have 6 tepals united in a bowl at the base. From their nectar
bees make delectable buckwheat honey. Until 2005 we were able to offer myriad buckwheats grown in dry eastern Washington state by our friend Jim Swayne. He has moved on to other interests, however. We now grow only a few species. All of them wonderful, though. |
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Photograph by Brother Alfred Brousseau © St. Mary's College of California
Photograph © Mike Slater. |
Eriogonum caespitosum
Nuttall. Matted buckwheat. Silvery, spoon-shaped, fuzzy leaves on very short
branches form dense mats only 2 cm (1") tall.
Balls of yellow flowers tinged with red bloom on 5-cm (2.5") stems in
May-July, gradually aging to red. This is a compact form of an already compact
shrub. The species
is native from Oregon and California east to Montana and Colorado, always
in dry, bony terrain. Our plants are grown from seed collected by Ron Ratko
in Camas County, Idaho, in the Mount Bennett Hills. The plant in the
lower picture is taller than ours, but we wanted you to see the
magnificent red phase.
Not available this season. |
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Photograph © Paul Slichter |
Eriogonum compositum var. leianthum Hooker.
Northern buckwheat. Clumps of deltoid to lance-shaped leaves
~ felted green above, woolly-white below ~ rise on long petioles from a
stout taproot. The flowers, in 7-15 cm (3-6") heads, bloom on upright
stems in May-July. Native from central Washington to eastern Oregon and
central Idaho. Our plants are from seeds of a short population,
15-22 cm (6-9") tall, with pale yellow to deep lemon yellow flowers.
They were collected by Ron Ratko
on Table Mountain, in Kittitas County,
Washington.
Not available this season. |
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Photograph © Paul Slichter
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Eriogonum douglasii
Benth. Douglas's buckwheat. This variable species is
a low to prostrate shrub with small, linear, grey-felted leaves. We have
plants from four seed collections and present them as they were
encountered in the wild: from tallest (low) to shortest (absolutely
prostrate). The 2-cm (1") creamy ball flowers are preceded by shiny,
vermilion buds; they age to brick-red and rose. Native from Washington to
California and east to Idaho and Nevada.
Not available this season. |
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Photograph © Paul Slichter
Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Eriogonum thymoides
Benth.
Thyme-leaved buckwheat. This is a densely branched,
mat-forming shrublet 10-16 cm (4-6") tall, with tiny, grey,
edge-rolled leaves that are silver-plush below and silky above. The
flowers ~ male and female on separate plants ~ bloom in April-July. They
start out white to yellow to pink and age to watermelon, rose and maroon.
Native to sagebrush plains and dry foothills from Chelan County,
Washington east to southwestern Idaho. Our plants are from seeds collected
in Idaho. In our lower photograph, you see them hunkered down in our hoop
house for the winter.
Pot (6 cm / 2.5"). In Canada, C$8.00; elsewhere US$7.25. |
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| This page was updated Sept. 10, 2006 | ||||
