Saltwort wild buckwheat

Eriogonum demissum S. Stokes; E. demissum var. romanum; E. vimineum Douglas ex Bentham var. salicornioides (Gandoger) S. Stokes

Herbs, spreading, annual, (0.5-)1-3 dm, glabrous, greenish to reddish. Stems: caudex absent; aerial flowering stems erect, solid, not fistulose, 0.2-0.6 dm, glabrous. Leaves basal; petiole 0.5-3 cm, floccose; blade ovate to orbiculate, 0.4-1.5 × 0.4-1.2 cm, white-tomentose abaxially, floccose or glabrous and greenish adaxially, margins plane. Inflorescences cymose, open, 5-25 × 5-25 cm; branches glabrous; bracts 3, scalelike, 1-2 × 1-2 mm. Peduncles absent or erect, straight, slender, 0.1-0.5 cm, glabrous, absent distally. Involucres turbinate, 1.5-2 × 1-1.7 mm, glabrous; teeth 5, erect, 0.4-0.8 mm. Flowers 1.2-1.7 mm; perianth white to pale yellow, glabrous, pustulose proximally; tepals monomorphic, ovate; stamens included, 1.2-1.8 mm; filaments glabrous. Achenes brown, lenticular, 1.6-2 mm, glabrous. 2n = 36.

Flowering May-Jul. Clayey flats and slopes, saltbush, greasewood, and sagebrush communities, juniper woodlands; 700-1300(-1500) m; Idaho, Nev., Oreg.

Eriogonum salicornioides is known from Harney and Malheur counties in southeastern Oregon and Elmore and Owyhee counties of southwestern Idaho. Its attribution to Nevada is based on a Percy Train collection (Jun 1934, NY, PAC) from a dry desert valley in northern Humboldt County. Efforts to relocate the species in that state have been unsuccessful.