General: There are a variety of annual buckwheats (Eriogonum sp.) often with upright or mounded, finely branched stems, and often with a reddish cast to the plant. The flower parts are in sets of three. The many species can be difficult to identify.

Annual buckwheats are common components of vegetation communities in dry, well-drained sandy and gravelly areas on desert flats, bajadas, and moderate slopes in the lower mountains in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.

Family: Buckwheat (Polygonaceae).