Distribution: Occurring east of the Cascades crest in central Washington; central Washington to California, east to the Rocky Mountains.
Habitat: Sandy deserts to lower mountain slopes, chiefly with sagebrush.
Flowers: June-August
Origin: Native
Growth Duration: Perennial
Conservation Status: Not of concern
Pollination: Bumblebees, bees, flies, butterflies, beetles, wasps
Scraggly, woody perennial with a few, leafy stems to 4 dm. tall, and a much-branched inflorescence with tiny, terminal flower clusters.
Leaves alternate, linear to oblong or narrowly obovate, 1-3 cm long, narrowed gradually to a short petiole, gray-woolly beneath and greenish but with some hairs above, crowded along the lower half of the stem.
Inflorescence freely branching, open, flat-topped, 2-20 cm. long; involucres borne singly, 2-2.5 mm. long, with short, scarious-margined teeth; tepals top-shaped, 2-2.5 mm. long, white to pink or yellow, the rounded lobes somewhat longer than the tube, without a stipe at the base.
Achene
The scraggly, leafy stems that are woody for about the lower third are unique among the Eriogonums in our area.
Publication: Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. 4: 15. (as microtheca). 1848.
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var. laxiflorum – Great Basin slender buckwheat, Great Basin wild buckwheat
Occurring east of the Cascades crest in central Washington; central Washington to California, east to the Rocky Mountains.
PNW Herbaria: Specimen records of Eriogonum microtheca in the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria database
WA Flora Checklist: Eriogonum microtheca checklist entry
OregonFlora: Eriogonum microtheca information
E-Flora BC: Eriogonum microtheca atlas page
CalPhotos: Eriogonum microtheca photos
