Let’s Get to Know California Buckwheat!

If you’ve ever driven through Southern California in late summer, you probably are familiar with the rolling, brown hills that cover the landscape, typical of the coastal sage scrub plant community. At this point in the summer, wild plants haven’t seen water in months, and many of them go dormant to survive this prolonged period of drought. One of these plants, however, stands out amongst the sea of brown. If you look closely, you might notice a rust-colored shrub that dominates the landscape. This is the California Buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciculatum.

California Buckwheat is an iconic and valuable part of the coastal sage scrub. While many plants in this community dry up in the summer to survive the period of drought, California Buckwheat is an evergreen, with small leaves that are woolly on their undersides. The flowers are small and range from white to pink, but when they dry out, they turn a beautiful rusty color, which makes it a visually interesting plant to have in a native garden. California Buckwheat is considered a keystone species, boasting 260 native bee species and 105 native butterfly species that utilize it, according to Calscape. Its ecological importance doesn’t end there: it is also an important food source for birds who eat its tiny seeds or forage for insects amongst its branches, not to mention the small mammals, reptiles, and other critters that take refuge beneath it.

California Buckwheat is in the family Polygonaceae, the Buckwheat family, which means it is related to the buckwheat species that is widely eaten across the world, such as in Japanese soba noodles, Russian and Ukrainian grechka, and Korean memilmuk. Although the California variety is not explicitly edible, the roots and dried flower heads were used in medicinal remedies by the indigenous people of California (Ritter, California Plants).

The next time you are on a hike, keep a look out for California Buckwheat’s rusty flowers, and maybe even see if you can notice a butterfly looking for nectar or a bird foraging for insects. If you have a garden at home, consider adding it to your garden alongside companion plants such as Purple Sage and California Sunflower. You can find this plant and many more at the Los Nogales Nursery. You can also join us for habitat restoration to get to work with this plant and learn about many other beautiful California native plants.