Wright buckwheatbrush, known locally as bastard sage, white sage, 

 and wildbuckwheat, and sometimes called bush or white eriogonum, 

 is a low, white-woolly-hairy shrub usually less than 2 feet high, 

 and much branched from the base. This species grows on the more 

 arid plains, in rocky foothills, and in rough mountain canyons; 

 it ranges from California to Colorado, and western Texas, and south- 

 ward into Mexico. It usually occurs in loose sandy or gravelly soils, 

 and in association with some of the gramas. Although often 

 abundant, it tends! to make a scattered rather than a dense stand. 

 The flowers appear from June to November, and the seed is matured 

 and scattered from July to early winter. As might be expected 

 from its rather wide latitudinal and altitudinal range, Wright 

 buckwheatbrush is somewhat variable in aspect, tending to be 

 dwarfed, more matted, woollier, with smaller, rolled leaves, and 

 smaller flowers when growing in the lower, warmer sites, as well 

 as in the higher, colder, arid more rocky locations; some of these 

 differences have been made the bases of varietal names. 



In parts of the South wast this shrubby eriogonum is considered 

 fairly good forage for goats and sheep, and fair for cattle. Bidwell 

 and Wooton, who have published x a chemical analysis for it, note that 

 cattle and sheep eat the young shoots with relish. 



Three other shrubby eriogonums merit brief discussion. Flat-top 

 buckwheatbrush (E. fasdcv^aftu^ri} , also called California-buckwheat 

 and flat-top, and the lower growing, closely related rosemary buck- 

 wheatbrush (E. polifo'liwn, syn. E. fascicul-a'turn, polifo'liwrn}, have 

 woody, shreddy-barked, clustered-leafy stems and twigs. The white 

 or pinkish flowers are borne in heads at the tips of rather short, leafless 

 flower-head stalks. Flat-top buckwheatbrush is common, sometimes 

 even abundant, in canyons and on dry mountain slopes and mesas in 

 California. 



Rosemary buckwheatbrush, hardly specifically distinct from flat- 

 top buckwheatbrush, ranges a little more widely than the latter 

 species, occurring in desert areas and on mountain sides of the creo- 

 sotebush belt from southern Utah and Arizona to southern Cali- 

 fornia. On some of the semidesert areas of the Tonto National 

 Forest, Arizona, it rates, chiefly due to abundance, as one of the bet- 

 ter browse feeds. 



Slender buckwheatbrush (E. / mior&the f cwn) is a low scattered-leafy 

 bush, usually up to about a foot high, much-branched from the base. 

 It is very widely distributed, occurring from western Nebraska to 

 Montana, Washington, California, Arizona, and Colorado, and pre- 

 fers dry, open hillsides and the like. Besides being widespread, this 

 species is sometimes locally abundant and valuable. The new growth 

 is grazed on lambing ranges, especially in the Intennountain region, 

 while the foliage is eaten during the winter. Although the forage 

 value of this plant varies with its associates and local abundance, 

 goats, sheep, and cattle eat the flowers, fruits, and tops. It rates as 

 poor to fair spring and summer feed for sheep, and fair to fairly good 

 winter feed. 



1 Bidwell, G. L., and Wooton, E. O. SALTBUSHES AND THEIR ALLIES IN THE UNITED 

 STATES. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bull. 1345, 40 pp., illus. 1925. 



