3AU3UTJLCEAE 



and southern California* It has handsome white flowers resembling 

 anemones. The leaves and stems hove a strong medicinal odor and 

 the plant is evident];." used medicinally by the Mexicans • TVh.il e the 

 plant has a good root system and forms pure stands, it is hardly 

 suitable for erosion control as it does not thrive on even wet soil 

 that is well drained. 



POLYGONACEAE 



♦B riogo num wri ghtii is perhaps the most common Buckwheat in 

 the mountains of the southwest. It ranger, fro- southeastern Texas 

 to southern California and southward into Mexico. In many places 

 in the foothills and even up to altitudes of 6,000 or 7,000 feet, 

 it forms a considerable part of the ground cover and constitutes 

 one of the most valuable of the browse shrubs. In regions where 

 there has been no grazing this plant frequently reaches a height 

 of three feet and. forms a compact mass of slender twigs with narrow, 

 grayish leaves. The white to pink flowers are in dense racemes, 

 vie have handsome beds of this growing in the nursery at Tucson and 

 in the Safford IJursery. The bushes can be cut close to the ground 

 after the seed matures without injury to the plants. This Buckwheat 

 is worthy of extensive observational work,- in fact its value through 

 observations on the range can be considered well established, 



* Eriogonum 1 ep t ophy 1 lu m is abundant in parts of the Navajo 

 Indian Reservation, particularly in the vicinity of Mexican Springs, 

 It is a rather slender, erect shrub which is heavily browsed, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Mus grave, Erosion Control Practices, formerly of the 

 Research Division, Soil Conservation Service. This Buckwheat doubt- 

 less docs not have the wide range of adaptability of E. wrightii but 

 it is sufficiently important that it should be given trial in sec- 

 tions similar to those about Mexican Springs. 



Briog onum polifolium, Tush Buckwheat, is a divaricately, 

 much-branched, rigid shrub two to three feet high with congested 

 umbels of pinkish flowers. This shrub covers thousands of acres of 

 extremely dry foothills country and plains at altitudes of three 

 to five thousand feet in western Arizona and eastward to the moun- 

 tains about Globe. It is the shrub which is so abundant for miles 

 along the Apache Trail in Arizona. It is sufficiently abundant to 

 be a good soil binder but its palatability is very low. In the 

 extreme western and southwestern part of the state of Arizona this 

 species shades into JD^ fa si cu la, turn, which is common in southern 

 California. In the Kofa Mountains north of Yuma, Arizona, E. 

 f asiculatu m seems to be a much better browse shrub. It, however, 

 Is not sufficiently abundant to be of much value for erosion control. 

 S. J^a mesii and E^ bake r i are Buckwheats which are very similar dn 



