Eriogonum parvifolium Smith   Polygonaceae (Buckwheat Family)   Native   Buckwheat   Bluff Buckwheat

                                      February Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Shrubs with loosely branched decumbent or prostrate stems 3-10 dm. long, thinly floccose, densely leafy to the summit; lvs. fascicled, round-ovate to lance-oblong, thickish, revolute, sometimes cordate at the base, 5-15 mm. long, on shorter petioles, the blades green and glabrate above, densely white-tomentose beneath; flowering stems few, mostly 2-5 cm. long, simple or forked, bearing compact heads 1-2 cm. in diam.; invols. glabrate to somewhat woolly, turbinate-campanulate, 3-4 mm. long; calyx white or tinged rose, glabrous, ca. 3 mm. long, the segms. obovate; fils. pilose basally; aks. ovoid-deltoid, 2.5 mm. long.

Habitat:  Common on bluffs and dunes along the coast; Coastal Strand, Coastal Sage Scrub; San Diego Co. to Monterey Co.  Mostly summer, but with some fls. most of the year.

Name:  Greek, erion, wool, and gonu, joint or knee, the type genus E. tomentosum being hairy at the nodes.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 677).  Latin, parvus, small and folium, leaf.  (Jaeger 103,184).  Referring to the small leaves.

General:  Uncommon in the study area.  Found only on the Castaway's bluffs.  (my comment).        The El Segundo blue butterfly, Euphilotes bernardino ssp. allyni, is on the federal list of endangered species; it inhabits the coastal dunes in Los Angeles County between Los Angeles International Airport and the Palos Verdes peninsula.  The survival of the El Segundo blue is entirely dependent upon the coast buckwheat, Eriogonum parvifolium. The flower heads are the site of the butterfly’s egg laying and mating.  The remaining habitat of the butterfly is very small; in the 1970’s a portion of this habitat was hydroseeded with of California native plants including the California buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciculatum.  When the butterfly population began to decrease it was found that the inflorescences of E. fasciculatum and E cinereum were poisonous to the larvae of the El Segundo blue butterfly.  It was also discovered that E. fasciculatum was a host plant for two native moths, Lorita scarfica and Aroga sp. and that these moths competed for the inflorescences of not only E. fasciculatum but E. parvifolium as well.  The moths produce more than one generation each year while the El Segundo blue is limited to only one generation per year allowing the moths to gain a competitive advantage over the butterfly.  The increased population of moths also raised the populations of parasitoids that that did not differentiate between the larvae of the moths and the butterfly.  The problem was solved when the Los Angeles International Airport Commission provided funds to eliminate Eriogonum fasciculatum from the site.  (O’Brien, Bart C. “THE INTERSECTION OF CONSERVATION AND GARDENING: AN OVERVIEW OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF GROWING CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANTS”  FREMONTIA, A Journal of the California Plant Society Vol. 29, No. 1 January 2001 pp. 16-23).

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 878; Munz, Calif. Flora 353; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 693; Roberts 33.

Photo Ref:  April 6 83 # 5,6; Feb 2 84 # 19.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by F. Roberts.

First Found:  April 1983.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 256.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 4/8/05.

                         April Photo                                                    April Photo