San Jacinto buckwheat is a fairly uncommon species of buckwheat that can be found sometimes up to about 8800' in the Santa Rosa, Palomar and Cuyamaca Mts, and in the Little San Bernardinos.  The Jepson Manual says it can grow to 3' tall, but I have only seen it much smaller, from 10"-15", erect and very delicately-stemmed, almost invisible except when there are masses of it covering the ground.  The oblanceolate to obovate leaves are coarsely hairy and glandular and are in a basal cluster.  The cyme-
like inflorescence has many small involucres on thread-like stalks, and the flowers are mostly white and puberulent. The calyx segments are notched to apiculate often with a dark line down the center.  It inhabits both joshua tree and pinyon-juniper woodland and yellow pine forest in granitic soils and blooms from July to August.  These pictures were taken on the Pacific Crest Trail above Idyllwild, between Saddle Junction and Chinquapin Flats.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Eriogonum 2) apiculatum.
Pronunciation: er-ee-OG-an-um ap-ik-yoo-LAY-tum.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.