| Eriogonum giganteum | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Core eudicots |
| Order: | Caryophyllales |
| Family: | Polygonaceae |
| Genus: | Eriogonum |
| Species: | E. giganteum |
| Binomial name | |
| Eriogonum giganteum S.Wats. |
|
Eriogonum giganteum (St. Catherine's lace) is a species of wild buckwheat.
Contents |
Eriogonum giganteum is variable in size, from a thin half a meter in height and width to a sprawling or rounded bush over three meters high and wide. The leathery, woolly, oval-shaped leaves are clustered sparsely along the mostly naked branches. The plant flowers densely in carpets of clustered tiny flowers, each hairy pinkish white flower only a few millimeters across.
This shrub is endemic to the Channel Islands of California, in the coastal sage scrub plant association habitat. One variety of this geographically limited plant, the Santa Barbara Island buckwheat (Eriogonum giganteum var. compactum), is particularly rare on Santa Barbara Island.