Sarah's wild buckwheat

Eriogonum sarahiae N. D. Atwood & A. Clifford in S. L. Welsh et al., Utah Fl. ed. 3, 840. 2003

Plants cespitose, hummock-forming and matlike, 0.5-1.5 × 0.5-3 dm. Aerial flowering stems 0.1-0.5(-0.65) dm, silky-tomen-tose. Leaves: petiole 0.3-0.6 cm; blade narrowly elliptic, 0.4-1.2 × 0.15-0.35 cm. Inflorescences capitate, 0.5-1.5 cm; branches absent. Involucres 2-5 per cluster, 2-3.5 mm. Flowers 2.5-5 mm.

Flowering May-Jul. Rocky limestone and mesa tops, pinyon-juniper woodlands; 1800-2300 m; Ariz., N.Mex.

Variety sarahiae is known from caprock formed by the Owl Rock Member of the Chinle Formation in the Red Valley area of Apache County, Arizona, and McKinley County, New Mexico, where it occurs on windswept, limestone mesa tops on the Navajo Reservation. It occurs also in Petrified Forest National Park to the west. The scapes and capitate inflorescences extend well beyond the leaves. The variety is worthy of cultivation.