Wyoming wandering: part one--buckwheat bother

Eriogonum umbellatum ssp. majus

What's the bother with buckwheats? We'll get to that but first admire if you will the wonderful changing color on the perianth segments of this specimen--soon the whole umbel will be rose. I grew up calling this Eriogonum subalpinum (which it remains in my heart). This was classed as a subspecies of the common--almost always yellow--species because they supposedly intergrade. I did not find any evidence of this in Yellowstone National Park last July....as you will see.

Eriogonum umbellatum ssp. majus

 Yampa River Botanic Park contains a spectacular mass planting of this--one of our most abundant and wonderful groundcovers practically restricted to the Rocky Mountain subalpine zone (hence the very appropriate epithet). The white flowers when fresh are blindingly white.

Eriogonum umbellatum ssp. umbellatum

Three yellow flowered subspecies or varieties of the common buckwheat are found in Yellowstone National park: one, with hairy white leaves is endemic and very rare there (not pictured here). I believe this is the type form of the species--looking quite robust. Believe it or not--the last two pictures were taken a stone's throw from one another...

TWO different subspecies TOGETHER!

Here you can see a big sweep of  var. majus in front and a mass of var. umbellatum in the distance. I did not find any hybrids or evidence of introgression here. Methinks they shouldn't be lumped into one species...just sayin'...

Here you see a yellow form of umbellatum within an easy bee's flight of a mass of variety majus...

Eriogonum umbellatum ssp. umbellatum

I personally would prefer to raise var. majus back to E. subalpinum...hoping some gene jockey will be able to distinguish them enough soon. 

In whatever flavor, these (and a hundred other) buckwheats light up the midsummer mountains, and increasingly our gardens. There are dozens of subspecies of E. umbellatum: I am gratified that var. aureum collected by Dermod Downs on Kannah Creek near Grand Junction has become a popular Plamt Select introduction (incidentally, something I had something to do with in the misty long forgotten past)....now let's get 'majus' (in whatever scientific name) in that program too, please...