Davidson's buckwheat is an erect glabrous branched annual with slender stems and flower clusters that are sessile and laterally positioned on the stems.  The leaves are basal, round to reniform, and white wooly (especially beneath) with wavy or crisped margins.  The individual flowers are white to pale pink, glabrous and less than 1/8" long.  This buckwheat flowers from June to September and may be found in ± dry areas under pines to an elevation of perhaps 8000' in the mountains from Ventura Co. south to San Diego Co.  These pictures were taken in the Fish Creek area of the San Bernardino Mts.  Note: There are two very similar, closely-related taxa with mostly shared characteristics, E. molestum and E. davidsonii, listed in the Jepson Manual. Munz's Flora of Southern California included E. molestum as a synonym of E. davidsonii. Based on characteristics which I have observed such as overall height (40-60 cm in davidsonii and 100 cm in molestum), inflorescence size (3-4 mm in davidsonii and 5-8 mm in molestum), and number of inflorescences per individual plant (100-200 in an average molestum and 1000 in an average davidsonii), I now believe that Jepson is correct that these are two distinct species.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Eriogonum 2) davidsonii.
Pronunciation: er-ee-OG-an-um day-vid-SONE-ee-eye.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.