Red Buckwheat
Eriogonum grande v. rubescensis from San Miguel Island of the Channel Islands National Park.
The rubescens is for the red flowers. The grande is for the big leaves, as far as buckwheats go.
We give them full sun, but then we’re at the coast just like the islands they come from. On the other hand further inland they need some afternoon shade to be at their prettiest.
They will bloom on and off for months through the summer, and yet they don’t need summer water after the first year in the ground. I assume that is because they’re native to clay soils.
Butterflies love them. Deer might too, but we don’t have deer very often down here in the Berkeley Flats, so we watch the butterflies instead.
