Eriogonum parvifolium

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Eriogonum parvifolium
Eriogonum parvifolium 3.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Polygonaceae
Genus: Eriogonum
Species:
E. parvifolium
Binomial name
Eriogonum parvifolium
Sm.
E. parvifolium Eriogonum parvifolium 1 cropped.jpg
E. parvifolium

Eriogonum parvifolium is a species in the family Polygonaceae that occurs on dune formations in the coastal area of Central and Southern California. This evergreen shrub grows to a height of 30 to 100 centimeters with a spread of approximately the same dimension. [1] This plant is an important host for a number of pollinating insects including certain endangered species. E. parvifolium occurs both on bluffs along the Pacific Ocean coast as well as Coastal Strand dunes formations, but is restricted to altitudes below 700 meters. In at least one instance within the Carbonera Creek watershed, it occurs farther inland in a Maritime Coast Range Ponderosa Pine forest. [2] This shrub is also known by the common names dune buckwheat, coast buckwheat, cliff buckwheat, or seacliff buckwheat.

Contents

Description

Coast Buckwheat flower at Point Reyes National Seashore Coast Buckwheat flower.jpg
Coast Buckwheat flower at Point Reyes National Seashore

The thick cauline leaves are five to thirty millimeters in size and may be lanceolate to rounded. [3] Alternatively leaves may be folded under, with the result of appearing more or less triangular; moreover they are smooth on the upper surfaces and woolly below. Foliage is green with reddish tinge, and the flowers white to pinkish or yellowish-green. The perianth measures 2.5 to 3.0 millimeters. This plant's glabrous fruits are 2.5 to 3.0 millimeters across.

Ecology

E. parvifolium grows in sandy soils with pH ranging from five to eight (e.g. tolerates mildly acidic to mildly alkaline soils). In cultivation this species will actually tolerate clay soils. [4] While this shrub grows in part to full sun, it may tolerate shade in cultivation. It is not subject to herbivory by deer, although many smaller fauna will consume its flowers, fruits and leaves. This species thrives in rainfall regimes of 39 to 78 centimeters per annum.

Dune buckwheat is the host plant to a large variety of insects, and thus there is intense competition among various insects. Specifically it is a host plant to ten different Lepidoptera species, including the El Segundo blue butterfly and Smith's blue butterfly; moreover, in the case of the El Segundo blue, it is the only host plant used by that species in all of its life stages.

Conservation

Because of the host relationship to number of insect species, E. parvifolium has been the subject of numerous restoration programs including a significant and well researched program at Los Angeles International Airport, one of only three extant colonies of the endangered El Segundo blue. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Segundo blue</span> Species of butterfly

The El Segundo blue is an endangered species of butterfly. It is endemic to a small dune ecosystem in Southern California that used to be a community called Palisades del Rey, close to the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

<i>Eriogonum</i> Genus of North American wild buckwheats

Eriogonum is a genus of flowering plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus is found in North America and is known as wild buckwheat. This is a highly species-rich genus, and indications are that active speciation is continuing. It includes some common wildflowers such as the California buckwheat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coastal sage scrub</span> Shrubland plant community of California

Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is within the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome.

<i>Eriogonum crocatum</i> Species of wild buckwheat

Eriogonum crocatum, the Conejo buckwheat or saffron buckwheat, is a species of Eriogonum, or wild buckwheat. It is endemic to the Conejo Valley and surrounding regions in Ventura County, California It grows on open, dry hillsides, often in crags in rock faces.

<i>Eriogonum nudum</i> Species of wild buckwheat

Eriogonum nudum is a perennial shrub of the wild buckwheat genus which is known by the common name naked buckwheat or nude buckwheat.

<i>Rhus integrifolia</i> Species of shrub

Rhus integrifolia, also known as lemonade sumac, lemonade berry, or lemonadeberry, is a shrub to small tree. It is native to the Transverse and Peninsular Ranges and the South Coast regions of Southern California. This extends from Santa Barbara County and the Channel Islands to San Diego County and extending into north-central Pacific coastal Baja California and its offshore islands such as Cedros Island.

<i>Eriogonum fasciculatum</i> Species of flowering shrub

Eriogonum fasciculatum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common names California buckwheat and flat-topped buckwheat. Characterized by small, white and pink flower clusters that give off a cottony effect, this species grows variably from a patchy mat to a wide shrub, with the flowers turning a rusty color after blooming. This plant is of great benefit across its various habitats, providing an important food resource for a diversity of insect and mammal species. It also provides numerous ecosystem services for humans, including erosion control, post-fire mitigation, increases in crop yields when planted in hedgerows, and high habitat restoration value.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smith's blue butterfly</span> Subspecies of butterfly

Smith's blue butterfly, Euphilotes enoptes smithi, is a subspecies of butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. This federally listed endangered subspecies of Euphilotes enoptes occurs in fragmented populations along the Central Coast of California, primarily associated with sand dune habitat in one case with a dune-based Maritime Coast Range Ponderosa Pine forest in the Carbonera Creek watershed in Santa Cruz County. The range of E. e. smithi is from Monterey Bay south to Punta Gorda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native species</span> Species indigenous to a given area in geologic time

In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution during history. The term is equivalent to the concept of indigenous or autochthonous species. A wild organism is known as an introduced species within the regions where it was anthropogenically introduced. If an introduced species causes substantial ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage, it may be regarded more specifically as an invasive species.

<i>Eriogonum apricum</i> Species of wild buckwheat

Eriogonum apricum is a rare species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Ione buckwheat. It is endemic to Amador County, California, in the United States.

<i>Eriogonum arborescens</i> Species of wild buckwheat

Eriogonum arborescens is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Santa Cruz Island buckwheat.

<i>Eriogonum cinereum</i> Species of wild buckwheat

Eriogonum cinereum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common names coastal buckwheat and ashyleaf buckwheat.

<i>Eriogonum davidsonii</i> Species of wild buckwheat

Eriogonum davidsonii is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Davidson's buckwheat. This plant is native to the southwestern United States and northern Baja California. It grows in sandy or gravelly soils, mixed grassland, saltbush, chaparral, sagebrush communities as well as oak and montane conifer woodland. It is a spindly annual herb growing up to 40 centimeters in height. Leaves are fuzzy, basal, and round with wavy or wrinkly margins fuzzy. They are two centimeters wide. The plant is variable in appearance, but is usually erect with thin, naked, neatly branching stems bearing clusters of tiny flowers at widely spaced nodes. Each flower is about 2 millimeters wide, bell-shaped, and can be white, pink or red. Flowering occurs May to September.

<i>Arctostaphylos myrtifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Arctostaphylos myrtifolia is a rare species of manzanita known by the common name Ione manzanita. It is endemic to the Sierra Nevada foothills of California. It grows in the chaparral and woodland plant community on a distinctive acidic soil series, an oxisol of the Eocene-era Ione Formation, in western Amador and northern Calaveras counties. There are only eleven occurrences, of which three have not been recorded since 1976. This is a federally listed threatened species.

Eriogonum deserticola is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Colorado Desert buckwheat.

<i>Eriogonum luteolum</i> Species of wild buckwheat

Eriogonum luteolum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name goldencarpet buckwheat. It is native to many of the mountain ranges of California and southern Oregon, including the Sierra Nevada, Cascades and California Coast Ranges. It grows in mountain and foothill habitat, such as forest and woodland, on granite and sometimes serpentine soils.

<i>Eriogonum pelinophilum</i> Species of wild buckwheat

Eriogonum pelinophilum is a rare species of wild buckwheat known by the common name clay-loving wild buckwheat. It is endemic to the state of Colorado in the United States, where it is known from only two counties. The most recent estimates available suggest there are 12 occurrences in existence for a total of about 278,000 individual plants in Delta and Montrose Counties. At least 7 occurrences observed in the past have not been relocated but are not yet believed extirpated. This plant is federally listed as an endangered species of the United States.

<i>Hudsonia ericoides</i> Species of flowering plants in the rock rose family Cistaceae

Hudsonia ericoides is a species of flowering plant in the rock-rose family known by the common names pine barren goldenheather, false heather, and golden-heather. It is native to eastern North America, where its distribution extends down the east coast from Newfoundland to Delaware, with a disjunct population in South Carolina.

<i>Eriogonum soredium</i> Species of wild buckwheat

Eriogonum soredium is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Frisco buckwheat. It is endemic to Utah in the United States, where it is known only from Beaver County. There are four populations, all located in the San Francisco Mountains. It is a candidate for federal protection.

<i>Eriogonum elongatum</i> Species of plant

Eriogonum elongatum, commonly known as longstem buckwheat or wand buckwheat, is a species of wild buckwheat native to coastal southern and Baja California.

References

  1. "Eriogonum parvifolium: Summary profile and photos". Archived from the original on 2006-11-07. Retrieved 2007-01-19.
  2. Environmental Impact Report for the Scotts Valley Redeveopment Area, Earth Metrics Incorporated, State of California Clearinghouse Report 7888 (1990)
  3. "Eriogonum parvifolium":Jepson Manual, University of California Press
  4. Eriogonum parvifolium preferences in the wild and under cultivation
  5. Travis Longcore et al., On the perils of ecological restoration and the El Segundo blue butterfly