Eriogonum maculatum – “Spotted Buckwheat”

Also Known As: Angle-Stemmed Buckwheat
Family: Buckwheat (Polygonaceae)
Bloom period: Apr-Nov
Form: Annual herb
Habitat: Sandy and gravelly soils
Leaves: Lanceolate to obovate, fuzzy; basal rosette, linear on stem, in pairs at some joints
Translation: “Eriogonum” is Greek for “woolly joint” and refers to the fuzzy-looking flowers that grow at the stem joints of some species in this genus (but not this one); “maculatum” is Latin for “spotted,” which refers to the appearance of the red and white flowers from a distance.
Notes: A distinguishing characteristic of this plant is the red, cup-shaped involucre, which is the scaly, bud-like structure that the individual flowers come out of.