Eriogonum maculatum

Eriogonum maculatum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name spotted buckwheat. It is native to western North America from Washington to Baja California to Utah, where it can be found in a number of habitats, often in abundance.

Eriogonum maculatum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Order:	Caryophyllales
Family:	Polygonaceae
Genus:	Eriogonum
Species:	E. maculatum
Binomial name
Eriogonum maculatum A. Heller

Description

This is an erect annual herb reaching heights of anywhere from 5 to 40 centimeters. Most of the woolly leaves are located at the base of the plant, but there may be a few along the stem.

The branching inflorescence holds many clusters of bright red and white striped flowers. Each flower is a few millimeters wide with distinctly cup-shaped tepals which are covered in minute spiky glands. The bright striping on the small tepals make the flower cluster look spotted from afar, hence its common name. It grows in sand, gravel or clay slopes and flats, grassland, and shrub-steppe.^[1]