James' Buckwheat

Eriogonum jamesii is a nectar source for the rare Spalding dotted-blue butterfly (Euphilotes spaldingi).

Eriogonum jamesii and E. arcuatum (see below) are considered “life medicines” and used ceremonially by Native Americans (C. Arnold, pers. comm.; A. B. Reagan 1929; P. A. Vestal 1952).

Herbs or subshrubs, compact or spreading, matted, 0.5-2.5 × 3-15 dm, tomentose to floccose. Stems: caudex absent or spreading; aerial flowering stems erect, slender, solid, not fistulose, usually arising directly from a taproot, 0.5-1.5 dm, tomentose to floccose. Leaves basal, typically not in rosettes; petiole 0.5-6 cm, tomentose to floccose; blade usually narrowly elliptic, 1-3(-3.5) × (0.3-)0.5-1(-1.2) cm, densely tomentose abaxially, thinly tomentose, floccose or glabrous and grayish to greenish adaxially, margins entire, plane or undulate and crisped. Inflorescences umbellate or compound-umbellate, 10-30 × 10-25 cm; branches tomentose to floccose; bracts 3-9, semileaflike at proximal node, 0.5-2 × 0.2-1 cm, often scalelike distally. Involucres 1 per node, turbinate, 1.5-7 × 2-5 mm, tomentose to floccose; teeth 5-8, erect, 0.1-0.5 mm. Flowers 3-8 mm, including 0.7-2 mm stipelike base; perianth white to cream, densely pubescent abaxially; tepals dimorphic, those of outer whorl lanceolate to elliptic, 2-5 × 1-3 mm, those of inner whorl lanceolate to fan-shaped, 1.5-6 × 2-4 mm; stamens exserted, 2-4 mm; filaments pilose proximally. Achenes light brown to brown, 4-5 mm, glabrous except for sparsely pubescent beak.

Eriogonum jamesii is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name James' buckwheat and antelope sage. It is native to the southwestern United States, being found in: Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Nebraska.