''Eriogonum inflatum'', the desert trumpet, is a

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

of the family

Polygonaceae The Polygonaceae are a family of flowering plants known informally as the knotweed family or smartweed—buckwheat family in the United States. The name is based on the genus ''Polygonum'', and was first used by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789 ...

. The plant possesses very small yellow or pink

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s and an inflated stem just below branching segments. Eriogonum: from the Greek ''erion'', "wool", and ''gonu'', "joint or knee", in reference to the hairy or woolly joints of some of the species of the genus, but not particularly ''inflatum''. It is found in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

and other deserts.

Stems

The swelling of the stems was assumed to have been influenced by the presence of

gall insect Gall wasps, also incorrectly called gallflies, are hymenopterans of the family Cynipidae in the wasp superfamily Cynipoidea. Their common name comes from the galls they induce on plants for larval development. About 1,300 species of this generall ...

s, most notably of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Odynerus ''Odynerus'' is a primarily Holarctic genus of potter wasps. The name of this genus has been widely used as a root to construct many other genus-level names for potter wasps with non-petiolated metasoma, such as ''Euodynerus'', ''Acarodynerus'', ...

''. The female

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

produces a small hole on the inflated portion of the desert trumpet, packs the cavity with

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e and lays her eggs upon them, providing a food source, and a protected environment for the offspring. Irritation caused by this process was said to have enlarged the cavity over time. Recently, research performed by a world authority on the genus ''Eriogonum'', Dr.

J. L. Reveal James Lauritz Reveal (March 29, 1941 – January 9, 2015) was a U.S. botanist best known for his contributions to the genus ''Eriogonum'' and for his work on suprageneric names. His website, at PlantSystematics.org, also presents material on plant ...

of the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Mary ...

, revealed the swollen stem of ''Eriogonum inflatum'' is due to high concentrations of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...

in the solid stem and seems to be related to gas regulation. Some insects utilize the swollen stem as a larder, but the inflation is ''not'' caused by the larval feeding of gall insects. Joshua Tree National Park - Desert Trumpet - 2

Joshua Tree National Park - Desert Trumpet - 2

Uses

It is known that some Native American tribes that once inhabited the surrounding areas of the

Las Vegas Valley The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the Southern Nevada, southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Stat ...

(most commonly Paiute) would remove the stalk of ''E. inflatum'' at the base, and then cut the inflated bulb in half, producing a makeshift pipe. A mixture of Indian tobacco and

mistletoe Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant. ...

would be smoked primarily for leisure purposes. This plant makes a brief appearance in '' Star Trek: Voyager'', in Season 3, episode 1, at around the 3 minute 47 second mark, when the character " Neelix" is shown to be looking at a picked specimen.

External links

UC Jepson Manual treatment - ''Eriogonum inflatum''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3056650 inflatum Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora of the Great Basin Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Death Valley National Park Flora without expected TNC conservation status