Eriogonum microtheca var. phoeniceum

(L. M. Schulz) Reveal

Harvard Pap. Bot. 9: 183. 2004.

Common names: Scarlet wild buckwheat
Endemic
Basionym: Eriogonum phoeniceum L. M. Shultz Harvard Pap. Bot. 3: 49, fig. 1. 1998
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 5. Treatment on page 246. Mentioned on page 244, 245, 247.

Subshrubs, 0.2–0.4 × 0.6–1.2 dm. Stems: caudex absent or sometimes spreading; aerial flowering stems 0.05–0.1 dm, reddish-tomentose to floccose. Leaves: blade linear, 0.4–0.6 × 0.08–0.12 cm, densely white-tomentose abaxially, sparsely floccose and green adaxially, margins revolute. Inflorescences 0.5–1 cm; branches reddish-floccose to glabrate. Involucres 2–3 mm, floccose to subglabrous. Flowers 2–2.5 mm; perianth white to pink, rose, or red. Achenes 1.5–2 mm.


Phenology: Flowering Jul–Sep.
Habitat: Tuffaceous ash outcrops, sagebrush communities, pinyon-juniper woodlands
Elevation: 1600-2100 m

Discussion

Variety phoeniceum is known only from widely scattered populations in Juab and Millard counties of western Utah. It closely approaches var. lapidicola, and a distinction between the two is somewhat arbitrary, the leaf blades of var. phoeniceum being tightly revolute and a brighter green on the adaxial surface. Specimens of var. phoeniceum also approach specimens of the variable var. simpsonii found mainly in Emery County in eastern Utah.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.