Common names:
Yellow turbans, puny buckwheat
Family:
Scientific name:
Eriogonum pusillum
Main flower color:
Range:
From southeast Oregon to northwest Arizona
Height:
Between 2 and 12 inches
Habitat:
Sandy or gravelly locations, sagebrush, pinyon/juniper woodland, up to 8,500 feet
Leaves:
Round to ovate, on stalks, about half an inch across, covered by short woolly hairs
Season:
February to July
Eriogonum pusillum is a common and widespread species, found at a range of elevations and in a variety of habitats between Oregon and Arizona, concentrated in the Great Basin and Mojave deserts. The circular, stalked leaves grow only at the base, forming a flat rosette, from where the lightly branched, hairless, grey-green to reddish stems rise a few inches, topped by spherical clusters of small yellow flowers, with three scale-like bracts underneath. Flowers have a reddish, bell-shaped, finely glandular-hairy, five-toothed involucre and a six-lobed corolla, yellow at first, later orange/red. Leaves may be wavy around the edges.
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