Whitewoolly Buckwheat

Variety ochrocephalum is occasionally seen in rock gardens, and var. calcareum is worthy of cultivation.

Herbs, matted, scapose, 0.5-4.5(-5) × 0.5-3 dm, glabrous or glandular, grayish. Stems matted or spreading, occasionally with persistent leaf bases, up to 1/ 5 height of plant; caudex stems matted or absent; aerial flowering stems scapelike, erect, slender, solid, not fistulose, (0.5-)1.5-4.5(-5) dm, glabrous, rarely slightly floccose, or glandular below inflorescence.  Leaves basal, fasciculate in terminal tufts, sometimes 1 per node and sheathing up stem 1-4 cm; petiole 1-4(-5) cm, tomentose; blade oblanceolate or lanceolate to elliptic, oblong, or ovate to obovate, (0.6-)1-3.5(-4) × (0.3-)0.5-1.5 cm, densely tomentose abaxially, only slightly less so adaxially, margins plane. Inflorescences capitate, 1.5-2.5 cm; branches absent; bracts 3, scalelike, narrowly triangular, 1-2.5 mm. Peduncles absent or erect, slender, 0.1-0.5(-0.6) cm, glabrous. Involucres 5-8 per cluster, turbinate to campanulate, 3.5-5.5(-6) × (1.5-)2-4.5(-5) mm, rigid, floccose at least on teeth, occasionally glandular, rarely glabrous; teeth 6-8, erect, 0.5-1 mm. Flowers 1.5-3 mm; perianth yellow, glabrous or weakly glandular abaxially; tepals connate proximally, monomorphic, broadly oblong; stamens exserted, 2.5-3.5(-4) mm; filaments pilose proximally. Achenes light brown, (1.5-)2-3 mm, glabrous.

Eriogonum ochrocephalum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name whitewoolly buckwheat. It is native to the Great Basin of the United States, where it grows in local habitat such as sagebrush. It is a perennial herb forming a thick clump or mat covered in clusters of woolly lance-shaped to oval leaves. The inflorescences arise on erect scapes and bear many tiny yellow flowers in a rounded cluster.