Eriogonum Lobbii, Granite Buckwheat

Eriogonum lobbii is one of the more distinctive buckwheat species; it has a dense, rounded, terminal cluster of flowers, subtended by a whorl of leaf-like bracts (three to five), on a leafless stalk from a basal leaf rosette. Flowers are initially white or pale yellow, maturing to orange then pink to red - often all colors are present at the same time. Tepals are ovate, and darker along the midvein. Stamens are exserted; they have thin white filaments and transverse yellow anthers. The reddish-pink involucres, around a third of an inch long, have six to ten triangular teeth along the upper margin, spreading to reflexed.

Plants can form small mats, with multiple stems; about one foot across. Stems tend to lay along the ground, turning up only at the tip. The stems have a covering of tomentose hairs, as do the the petiolate, rounded leaves, especially on the undersurfaces. Leaf margins are entire.