Eriogonum : identifications neede

[Egon27]

Who will help me give a name for the Eriogonum?

[Egon27]

Who will help me give a name for the Eriogonum?

[Maggi Young]

I expect you will find some help  from the forum, Egon.

Some super eriogonum have featured in the IRG  - there is an Index attached to this issue : http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2013Dec261388090959IRG48December2013.pdf

There is also the Eriogonum Society : http://www.eriogonum.org/

[TheOnionMan]

Egon, maybe I can help narrow the field a bit.  ID #4 does not look like an Eriogonum to me, there are some odd-ball Eriogonum species, but this one just doesn't look right to me, so, I'm not sure what it is.

ID#7 looks like a "pussypaws" of Cistanthe (formerly Calyptridium, such as C. umbellatum), member of the Portulacaceae.

The other are all very attractive, I hope you can get some ID's, although be aware this is a very large and difficult +genus (taxonomically), with minute leaf, pubescence, and floral characteristics that separates them.

[penstemon]

Nos. 1 and 2 are Eriogonum ovalifolium. No. 3 is E. ovalifolium var. nivale. No. 4 looks really familiar, but not an eriogonum. No. 5 looks like a loose form of E. caespitosum. No. 6 is also familiar, I'd say a variety of E. umbellatum.
No. 7 is Cistanthe umbellata (Spraguea or Calyptridium umbellatum).


Bob

[penstemon]

Let's say No. 6 is Eriogonum umbellatum var. nevadense, and No. 4 is Sideritis syriaca.

Bob

[Egon27]

Hello The Onion Man and Penstemon,
Many thanks for your help. No. 7 is not Calyptridium umbelletum [see photo]. Other leaves and flowers.

Greetings

[Egon27]

Maybe No.1, 2,3 have too little round leaves teeth to be E. ovalifolia? These leaves are spatulate.

[Tim Ingram]

This sounds a bit like the debate that others have had about pulsatillas Egon. Those who have seen them in the field and see their natural variation are more likely to have a clearer idea of nomenclature compared to those of us who grow them in gardens. They are extremely attractive plants and there is a great chapter in Lester Rowntree's book 'Hardy Californians' on them which made me realise how variable the genus is (including some striking annual species) - I would like to grow more of them and must join the Eriogonum society!

[TheOnionMan]

Hello The Onion Man and Penstemon,
No. 7 is not Calyptridium umbelletum [see photo]. Other leaves and flowers.

Greetings

Calyptridium is quite variable, I've grown a number of very variable forms of C. umbellatum; very round leaves, to pointed leaves, etc.  Add to that, there are a number of similar looking Calyptridium (now Cistanthe) species, I would bet money that #7 is indeed a Cistanthe (Calyptridium).

[Egon27]

OK, Mark,  but what is a species? This is not C.umbellatum which is my photo. Flowers also has other, more head and not the umbel.

[penstemon]

You're right; it's not a cistanthe. Or at least, not one from North America. Cistanthe has fleshy leaves, being in the Portulacaceae. I was only looking at the fruit.
Eriogonum ovalifolium does not always have oval leaves. "leaf blades oblanceolate to elliptic or spatulate to rounded " (Intermountain Flora)

Bob

[penstemon]

Or, it is a cistanthe and I'm just crazy.
Flora of the Pacific Northwest distinguishes two varieties of Spraguea umbellata; variety caudicifera, "leaves mostly < 15mm, often rounded" [ the one most commonly in cultivation, I guess], and variety umbellata, "leaves generally > 15mm, often obtuse to acute."

Asa Gray's description in Synoptic Flora of North America, 1897: "Winter-annual or biennial with a tap-root, or perennial, glabrous, with fleshy spatulate leaves, either all rosulate-clustered at the crown and scape (2 to 8 inches high) naked or nearly so, or with few to several similar but smaller scattered cauline leaves : inflorescence usually umbellate-cymose, at first capitate-glomerate, at length 5-13-radiate (usually from a short scarious involucre) into imbricately densely flowered simple or forking scorpioid cyme-branches, or with these scattered ; flowers subsessile,some scarious-bracteate : scarious sepals dull white or rose-tinged, in age 3 to 5 lines in
diameter, in anthesis equalling the rose or purple or whitish (ephemeral but marcescent)petals; stamens two opposite petals and the third alternate: these and the style exserted."

Bob

[Egon27]

Thanks, Bob,
I have to wait for the spring and carefully watch this plant. The time now is buried under snow.

[penstemon]

Sure. The snow is disappearing fast here. Just in time for the next snowfall ....

Bob