Wright’s Buckwheat
Eriogonum wrightii
Family: Polygonaceae
Perennial subshrub, growing about 1.5’ high and spreading about 2’ with silvery foliage. areas. Wiry flower stalks bloom summer into fall with nectar-rich flowers.
Full to part sun, moderate to low water with good drainage, hardy to at least 0°F. This plant often acts like an annual or short-lived perennial in really dry/cold
Photo by quandary on iNaturalist
Eriogonum wrightii on SEINET
This buckwheat is a larval food plant for the following butterflies:
Southwestern Azure (Celastrina echo ssp. cinerea)
Mexican Metalmark (Apodemia mejicanus)
Numerous insects use the nectar-rich flowers.
Eriogonum is from the Greek erion, wool, and gony, knee, alluding to the hairy nodes of the first species described, E. tomentosum; wrightii is named for William Greenwood Wright (1831-1912) a California lepidopterist.
Found in dry, rocky soils on flats and slopes, from 3,000-7,000 ft. in California, Nevada, Arizona, southern Utah, New Mexico, southern Texas; south into northern Mexico.
There are 9 recognized varieties within the larger distribution of this species, but two varieties are in Arizona and New Mexico: var. nodosum and var. wrightii.
Var. nodosum is mostly found in the low deserts of southwestern Arizona and southeastern California, and can be told apart by gray-tomentose flowering stems and branches. Var. wrightii is found from southeast California to west Texas and has white-tomentose stems.
Detail on the inflorescence, photo by Max Licher, SEINET
Plants before the flowers emerge, photo by quandary on iNaturalist