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Flatcrown buckwheat

Eriogonum deflexum

Also called Skeleton Weed, Flat Top Buckwheat, Ladder Buckwheat, Skeletonweed, Skeletonweed Buckwheat

Flatcrown buckwheat
Photo: David Batchelor, CC BY 4.0

Flatcrown buckwheat is a small, weedy annual wild buckwheat that grows from ground-hugging patches to tangled shrubs near 2 m tall. It thrives in full sun and poor, dry soil, and is best grown from seed in a sunny, free-draining spot.

Family
Polygonaceae (Buckwheat family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Full sun
Water
Water lightly during establishment, then let it rely mostly on rain and dry out between waterings.
Soil
Poor, sandy or gritty, well-drained soil.
Temperature
10–32 °C; protect from frost.
How easy
Easy
Native range
SW. U.S.A. to NW. Mexico
Climate
subtropical

About

Eriogonum deflexum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common names flatcrown buckwheat, flat-top buckwheat, and skeletonweed. This plant is native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, where it is common and grows in a variety of habitats, especially desert scrub. It is somewhat weedy where it is most abundant. This is an annual which varies in size from small patches on the ground to tangled bushes approaching two meters in height; it may be dense or thin and spindly. This is a brown or greenish weedy-looking herb with a many-branched stem. The leaves are located at the base of the plant and are rounded and woolly and one to four centimeters long. Small clusters of flowers appear at intervals along the branches with each flower only one to three millimeters wide and white or pinkish in color.

Other Eriogonum plants

Abert's buckwheat · Winged buckwheat · Shale barren buckwheat · Trinity buckwheat · Mono buckwheat · Anglestem buckwheat · San Jacinto buckwheat · Ione buckwheat · Santa Cruz Island buckwheat · Clay buckwheat · Sulphur Hot Springs buckwheat · Bailey's buckwheat

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Eriogonum deflexum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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