Garden tip: Marin home to rare buckwheat

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is a plant whose seed is used to produce buckwheat flour. It’s an important cultivated crop plant.

Buckwheat (Eriogonum species) are plants that are common natives in California. There are many species of Eriogonum; some sources say 250 species! In Marin, we have a rare and endangered species. Tiburon buckwheat (Eriogonum luteolum var. caninum) grows on serpentine soil on Ring Mountain. The plants are small (18 inches), and the flowers are small and white to pink in color. It’s difficult to distinguish the rare species from the other species on Ring Mountain — nude buckwheat (Eriogonum nudum).

Two plants that might make a nice addition to your native plant garden are saffron buckwheat (Eriogonum crocatum) with yellow flowers and gray, woolly leaves, and red-flowered buckwheat (Eriogonum grande rubescens).