''Eriogonum deserticola'' is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Colorado Desert buckwheat.

Distribution

The herbaceous perennial plant is native to the

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Ariz ...

of the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico, including near the

Salton Sea The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly saline body of water in Riverside and Imperial counties at the southern end of the U.S. state of California. It lies on the San Andreas Fault within the Salton Trough that stretches to the Gulf ...

in the Colorado Desert of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It is a plant of the desert sand dunes. It anchors itself in the blowing, shifting sand with a spreading underground caudex which may be several meters long, becoming exposed and gnarled as the sand blows away.Schoenherr, A. (1995),

A Natural History of California Allan A. Schoenherr (February 6, 1937 – May 31, 2021) was a Californian author, ecologist, and naturalist. He is the author of the widely used reference book, '' A Natural History of California''. He received his PhD in zoology at Arizona Stat ...

, pg 471

/ref>Flora of North America
/ref>

Description

''Eriogonum deserticola'' is an intricately branched shrub growing up to tall and spreading to or more in width. It has thin, gray-green stems coated in woolly white fibers. There are small oval-shaped leaves along the stem branches, but they are sometimes scoured off by the sand-laden winds. The stem is lined sparsely with small

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

s bearing a few hairy yellow flowers each under five millimeters wide. This shrub is a host to the

parasitic plant A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant. They make up about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome. All parasitic plants develop a specialized organ called the ...

known as sand food (''Pholisma sonorae''). It is also host to an endemic

jewel beetle Buprestidae is a family of beetles known as jewel beetles or metallic wood-boring beetles because of their glossy iridescent colors. Larvae of this family are known as flatheaded borers. The family is among the largest of the beetles, with some ...

, '' Prasinalia imperialis''.Arthropods of the Algodones Dunes
/ref>

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment of ''Eriogonum deserticola''UC Photos gallery — ''Eriogonum deserticola''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5389367 deserticola Flora of the California desert regions Flora of Arizona Flora of Sonora Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Natural history of the Colorado Desert Flora without expected TNC conservation status