Eriogonum rosense var. rosense, another high alpine buckwheat

[Weiser]

Eriogonum rosense var. rosense this high elevation species forms ever expanding mats. This is a rhyzominous species, that expands slowly. It does make it easy to take cuttings. It can be found through the central Sierra Nevada Range growing at elevations from 7000'-10000'.
I found it to be a common component of the Alpine plant community above 9400' on Slide Mountain, Washoe County, NV. It is growing on decomposed granite screes forming mats from 3"-12" across. The flowers were held 0"-3" above the foliage. The mats gray tomentose mats were 1/2"-1" tall. This plant was named for the neighboring peak just across a narrow high valley to the north west, Mt. Rose.

http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=3359
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/img_query?rel-taxon=contains&where-taxon=Eriogonum+rosense
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250060483
http://www.cnps.org/cnps/nativeplants/gallery/ingram/erio09.jpg

The first three pictures are of the populations at 9600" on Slide Mountain
The last is from my garden, This is a two year old cutting.
 

[Hoy]

Wonderful!
Weiser, do the cuttings root easily?

[Weiser]

Hoy
If you go back into the mat about three to four inches from the edge, you will find the shoots already rooted. They are only under a few inches of very lose sandy scree, so taking a cutting is very simple.

[Peter George]

John,
Any idea where I could get some seed? It's a beautiful plant, and I'd like to give it a try here in MA.

[Weiser]

Peter
I missed the seed this year, I waited too long be for returning.  The winds had shattered ripe heads.  I hope to collect some next year. You could always check the Eriogonum Society's seed exchange. This will be it's second year of distribution. I have no way of knowing if there will be seed for this species but there should be quite a few other uncommon ones listed. I sent in seed from eight species most of them wild collected or from garden plants that are from wild populations.

I hope you are able to come across some seed, it is a nice one.

[Peter George]

Didn't even know there WAS an Eriogonum Society. Guess I'll have to join. Thanks.

[Weiser]

Peter
It just started up last year. Here is their link   http://www.eriogonum.org/

We would love to have you join.

[IMYoung]

Thanks for this information , John - I didn't know about this organisation  either 

I'll make a link in the SRGC Forum links pages.... and I'll  be sure to make a link in the next International Rock Gardener, too, where there is more mention of these plants. 

 MY

[McGregor]

There's going to be a short article (with a great picture of Eriogonum lobbii) about the Eriogonum Society in the upcoming Winter issue of the Rock Garden Quarterly.

[Hugh MacMillan]

As a point of information, I am one of the two founders of the Eriogonum Society.  We became an organization in January 2009 and as of this writing have a bit over 100 members.  Please feel free to contact me directly if you have general questions about the organization or go visit our website at http://eriogonum.org.

I  would also like to publicly thank John Weiser for helping our fledgling society with arrangements in Reno in June 2010 where we held our first annual meeting.  Jim Reveal held an excellent day long classroom session, dedicating the first half to terminology and identification and the second half to a hands on id session, using samples he gathered on the way to Reno.  The following two days we enjoyed field trips to exquisite sites near Reno.

You missed a great meeting!  This will be the last time I indulge in outright campaigning for the Eriogonum Society (I think).

[IMYoung]

  Jim Reveal held an excellent day long classroom session, dedicating the first half to terminology and identification and the second half to a hands on id session, using samples he gathered on the way to Reno. 

Other may be interested to read this article "Eriogonum as a Rock Garden Plant" by James Reveal from the PlantSystemics site:
http://www.plantsystematics.org/reveal/pbio/eriog/eriogarden.html

[Hugh MacMillan]

  Jim Reveal held an excellent day long classroom session, dedicating the first half to terminology and identification and the second half to a hands on id session, using samples he gathered on the way to Reno.

Other may be interested to read this article "Eriogonum as a Rock Garden Plant" by James Reveal from the PlantSystemics site:
http://www.plantsystematics.org/reveal/pbio/eriog/eriogarden.html

Yes indeed - I have had a hard copy of this treatise for some time - it's interesting that an avowed non-gardener has so many good choices!