General: There are a variety of perennial buckwheats (Eriogonum spp.) often with upright or mounded, finely branched stems, and often with a reddish cast to the plant. The flower parts are in sets of three. There are many species of buckwheats, and as a group, most are difficult to identify. For non-experts in the genus, often it is best to just let them go as "buckwheats."

Perennial buckwheats are common components of vegetation communities in dry, well-drained sandy and gravelly areas on desert flats, bajadas, and moderate slopes in the lower mountains in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.

Family: Buckwheat (Polygonaceae).

Other Names:

Plant Form: Forb. Usually a single main stem with many terminal branches and many tiny flowers.

Height:

Stems: Narrow

Leaves: Usually only a basal rosette

Flowers: Blooms in the spring, also sporadically throughout the summer and fall in response to rain. Inflorescence: many slender branches, upright and spreading. Flowers tiny, oblong, 1–3 mm, yellow; from terminal stems.

Seeds: Achene; small (2 mm).

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy and gravelly on desert flats, bajadas, and moderate slopes in the lower mountains.

Elevation:

Distribution:

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