General: Sulphur-flower Buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum) is an evergreen shrub that grows as a mound of thick, oval leaves and puts up branching flowering stalks with clusters of yellow flowers in the spring. The species is, however, quite variable with some 30 subspecies, 10 of which occur in Nevada.

Eriogonum umbellatum var. nevadense: inflorescences umbellate (not compound-umbellate), umbels with branches usually longer than 2.5 cm, flowers bright yellow, flowers 4-7 mm, leaf blades tomentose to floccose.

Sulphur-flower Buckwheat is an uncommon component of vegetation communities in dry, well-drained gravelly areas in the lower mountains in the Upper Sonoran (Pinyon-Juniper Woodland), Transition (Yellow Pine Forest), and Canadian (Pine-Fir Forest) life zones.

Around Las Vegas, look for Sulphur-flower Buckwheat at higher elevations in Red Rock Canyon NCA, up in the Spring Mountains, in Basin and Range National Monument, and Zion National Park.

Family: Buckwheat (Polygonaceae)