California Buckwheat

Eriogonum fasciculatum

Earlier this week, I wrote about how everything in Southern California turns brown in the summer. Of course, there are always exceptions, and the hearty California Buckwheat is one.

This scrubby evergreen shrub can bloom from May through November. Its clusters of white to pink flowers are always a welcome sight on a hike. Luckily, they are quite prolific throughout the Santa Monica Mountains and much of Southern California. Even after the flowers have bloomed, the heads turn into a lovely deep rust color.

You’d also be hard-pressed to find a blooming California Buckwheat plant not absolutely teaming with bees. Apparently, the nectar produces a rather exquisite honey. However, don’t try to make pancakes from them. According to Nancy Dale in Flowering Plants, The Santa Monica Mountains, Coastal & Chaparral Regions of Southern California, “Even though the buckwheat of flour fame belongs to the same family, an attempt to make anything palatable of this plant is probably doomed to failure.”
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Blooming California Buckwheat is a great excuse to head out on the trails in Southern California in the summer and fall!

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