[Left: Whiter-stemmed greener-leaved form. Middle and right: Grayer-stemmed and -leaved form. It was not apparent until late August when these plants came into bloom that the middle and right-hand photos are of nauseosa var. bernardina. We had thought that they might be Ericameria parryi. Ericameria nauseosa var. hololeuca similarly has two extremely different-looking forms. I took the two pictures below 8/26/13 to show the individual flowers and illustrate something I had not understood until it was explained to me by Tom Chester. The picture below right shows the style branches, each one of which is composed of a stigma and a style appendage. The stigma is the part of the style branch next to the lower line, and the style appendage is the part next to the upper line. The relative lengths of the style appendage and stigma are important diagnostic characteristics for separating the varieties of E. nauseosa. Appendages < or = stigma include hololeuca and ceruminosa, appendages > stigma include bernardina, mohavensis and oreophila (in Southern California).]

Few-flowered naked buckwheat
Eriogonum nudum var. pauciflorum
Polygonaceae