Red Creek Howell's-buckwheat

Eriogonum puberulum S. Watson, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 14: 295. 1879; E. puberulum var. venosum S. Stokes

Plants weakly erect, grayish to greenish, 0.5-3 × 1-2 dm, mostly densely silky-puberulent. Stems 0.3-0.8 dm. Leaf blades obovate to rounded, 0.5-1.5 × 0.5-1.5 cm. Inflorescences spreading, open, 5-25 cm; bracts linear to narrowly lanceolate, 2-5(-9) × 1-2(-2.5) mm, somewhat foliaceous, puberulent. Involucral bracts oblanceolate, 0.5-1.2 × 0.1-0.3 mm, villous abaxially, outermost one 2- or 3-lobed apically. Flowers: perianth white to pale yellow, becoming rose or red in fruit, 1.5-2 mm, minutely pustulose basally and along midribs; tepals slightly dimorphic, those of outer whorl narrowly ovate, slightly auriculate basally with undulate-crisped margins in fruit, those of inner whorl narrowly oblanceolate, often shorter than those of outer whorl; filaments 0.8-1.2 mm. Achenes 1-1.5 mm.

Flowering May-Sep. Sandy flats and slopes, saltbush and sagebrush communities, pinyon-juniper woodlands; (500-)800-2800 m; Calif., Nev., Utah.

Johanneshowellia puberula is infrequent to occasionally locally common. Populations are widely scattered from the Cottonwood Mountains of Inyo County, California, across northern Clark, southern Eureka, Lincoln, Nye, and White Pine counties of Nevada, into Beaver, Iron, Millard, and Washington counties in Utah.