General: Desert Trumpet (Eriogonum inflatum) is a biannual forb with a small basal rosette of thick, dark green leaves, a single erect main stem to about 18-inches tall, and many terminal branches. The top of the main stem is greatly inflated; other nodes are slightly inflated. The terminal branchlets are thin and wispy. Flowers hang from the terminal branchlets.

Desert Trumpet is a common component of vegetation communities in dry, well-drained sandy and gravelly areas on desert flats, bajadas, and moderate slopes in the lower mountains in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) life zones.

Family: Buckwheat (Polygonaceae).

Other Names:

Plant Form: Biannual forb. In the first year, only a basal rosette of leaves; in the second year, produces a single main stem with many terminal branches and many tiny flowers.

Height: Flowering stalk to about 3 feet.

Stems: Narrow, swollen below nodes, especially the top of the main stem.

Leaves: Basal rosette: blades to about 2-inches long, oblong, coarsely hairy.

Flowers: Blooms in the spring, also sporadically throughout the summer and fall in response to rain. Inflorescence: many slender branches, upright and spreading. Flowers tiny, oblong, 1–3 mm, yellow; hanging from terminal stems.

Seeds: Achene; small (2 mm).

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy and gravelly on desert flats, bajadas, and moderate slopes in the lower mountains.

Elevation: Below sea level to 6,500 feet.

Distribution: California to Colorado and New Mexico, south into northwestern Mexico.