What: Eriogonum crocatum – Saffron Buckwheat

• Type: Evergreen subshrub
• Light: Sun
• Soil: Well drained
• Water: Infrequent

Dan Songster shares his native plant expertise with this article featuring a California Native Plant of the Month. April’s featured plant is Saffron Buckwheat (Eriogonum crocatum).

Saffron buckwheat is lovely whether in flower or not. A colorful, compact mounding shrub to 1 1/2 feet tall by 2-3 feet wide with wooly silver white leaves that contrast beautifully with its startling sulfur yellow to chartreuse flower heads. The flower clusters appear late spring through midsummer, eventually turning a cinnamon brown color before ending in a chocolate brown as seed heads develop in late summer. In the hot months of late summer and fall, the plant becomes dormant though it still keeps most of its foliage.

This eyecatcher is a great accent plant for your garden or even as a potted specimen. But this buckwheat has other uses too. It is low enough to be front and center in perennial beds, providing one of the most dramatic and attractive foliage to flower-color combinations you can find. Saffron buckwheat is an excellent choice for borders and banks. Taking a cue from its natural location in the wild, this plant is an obvious standout in rock gardens.

Don’t crowd it with overly aggressive shrubs or ground covers. Give these beauties a space of their own and they will shine. Simply placed among gravel and boulders is enough to frame these plants. Just like most of the buckwheat clan, saffron buckwheat are pillars of the plant community, providing a good nectar source for butterflies and seeds for birds to eat.

Plant in full sun along the coast with perhaps a touch of afternoon shade if growing inland. Saffron buckwheat prefers well drained soils with very little or no summer watering. If you have heavy clay like many of us do in Orange County, you could amend with decomposed granite and plant a bit high. (Then add another layer of DG around the plant. This seems to work for us at GWC Native Garden.) 

Maintenance consists of removing spent flowers in late summer or fall and tipping back leggy branches every year or two. This care will keep your saffron buckwheat dense and attractive for years. Caution: While weeding or working near this plant, care is needed since its branches are very brittle. 

Though not long lived in our clay soils, if you are lucky some seeds will fall and germinate, providing you with offspring. This lovely and unusual buckwheat is a pretty a tough plant that can take a fair amount of heat or unexpectedly cold temperatures in stride. And what appears to be a delicate plant has even been reported to grow back following fire!

Other Information: 

Saffron buckwheat is native to a small section of Ventura County where it grows along the Conejo Pass in the area where Highway 101 climbs south from the coastal plains of Camarillo. From this location comes the alternate common name Conejo Buckwheat.

This is a rare plant that is endemic to California and has a California Rare Plant Ranking of 1B:2. It can also be rare to locate in nurseries, so when you find it for sale at a CNPS plant sale or your favorite nursery, get more than one and enjoy!