[Illustration]
[Sidenote: =Butter Balls, Snow Balls=
_Eriógonum orthocàulon_
=Yellow, white
Spring, summer
Northwest=]
These are attractive plants, with pretty odd little balls of flowers,
and are very conspicuous on dry, rocky mesas. They have a number of
slender, pale, downy stems, about ten inches tall, springing from a
close clump of small, dull-green leaves, pale with down on both sides
and the smaller ones almost white, and bearing at the tip a dense
flower-cluster, about an inch and a half across, which is very fuzzy
and pretty. The little flowers have cream-color, downy involucres, the
outer sepals are broader than the inner, and the pedicels, stamens,
and pistil are all the same color as the sepals, either very bright
sulphur-yellow or cream-white, but not mixed on the same plant, and
sometimes tinged with red. These flowers are very popular with children
in Idaho and they make necklaces of the fuzzy balls, something like
"daisy chains."
[Sidenote: _Eriógonum compósitum_
=White, yellow
Summer
Northwest=]
This is a big handsome plant, with a thick, smooth stem, one or two
feet tall and woody at base, and with thickish leaves, slightly downy,
dark green in color on the upper side and white with close down on
the under. The flowers form feathery, cream-white or yellow clusters,
often more than six inches across, with red buds, and are beautiful and
conspicuous on bare mountainsides, smelling of honey.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Butter Balls--Eriogonum orthocaulon.]
[Illustration: Eriogonum compositum.]
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: =Buckwheat Bush, Flat-top=
_Eriógonum fasciculàtum_
=White
Spring, summer
Southwest=]
In favorable situations this is an attractive shrub, from two to four
feet high, with shreddy, reddish bark and long, straight branches,
standing stiffly up and crowded with small, thickish, stiffish
leaves, dark olive-green on the upper side and pale with down on the
under, with rolled-back margins. The flowers are about three-eighths
of an inch across, dull-white or pinkish, with pink buds, forming
large, feathery, flat-topped clusters, on long, stiff, bare, reddish
flower-stalks, standing up stiffly all over the bush. This is a very
valuable bee-plant and grows on mesas and mountain slopes.
[Sidenote: =Sulphur Flower=
_Eriógonum Bàkeri_
=Yellow,
Summer
Ariz., Utah, New Mex., Col., Wyo.=]
This plant is quite pretty and conspicuous, as the flowers are bright
in color and a peculiar shade of sulphur yellow. The stem is downy and
often reddish, about a foot tall, with two or three branches at the
top, each bearing a cluster of numerous small sweet-scented flowers
with pretty stamens. The gray-green leaves grow mostly in a rosette on
the ground and are covered with close white down on the under side.
Their soft tints tone in well with the bright color of the flowers and
the pale sandy soil in which they grow. _E. flàvum_ is similar and
widely distributed. _E. incànum_ is the same color but much smaller,
often tinged with red, the gray leaves forming a dense velvety mat,
and it grows at high altitudes, in sandy spots on rocks, and is found
around the Yosemite Valley. The alpine form is very small. There are
several other kinds of Sulphur Flower.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Sulphur Flower--E. Bakeri.