Checklist » Polygonaceae » Eriogonum cernuum
Last updated 2/11/2024 by David Giblin.
Eriogonum cernuum Nutt.[FNA5, HC, HC2]
nodding buckwheat

Publication: Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. 4: 14. 1848.

Origin: Native

selected vouchers: WTU

Notes: FNA5: "Eriogonum cernuum is widely distributed, being infrequent to common or even abundant and weedy. It is common throughout most of its range in southeastern Oregon, eastern California, southern Idaho, Nevada, Utah, northern Arizona, and New Mexico. The species is rare in southeastern Washington (Franklin County). It is less common and more widely scattered in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, and on the northern Great Plains in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, western South Dakota, and western Nebraska. The northern Great Basin phase, with sessile involucres, has been called var. viminale, but this difference now appears to be ecologic rather than genetic. Seeds of the nodding wild buckwheat were gathered by the Navajo (Diné) people, pounded into a meal, and eaten dry or made into a porridge (P. A. Vestal 1952; L. C. Wyman and S. K. Harris 1951).

References:

» Reveal, J. L. 1989c. The Eriogonoid flora of California (Polygonaceae: Eriogonoideae). Phytologia 66: 295-414.
Synonyms & Misapplied Names:
Eriogonum cernuum Nutt. ssp. tenue (Torr. & A. Gray) S. Stokes
Eriogonum cernuum Nutt. var. cernuum[JPM]
Eriogonum cernuum Nutt. var. psammophilum S.L. Welsh
Eriogonum cernuum Nutt. var. tenue Torr. & A. Gray
Eriogonum cernuum Nutt. var. viminale (S. Stokes) Reveal