Frisco buckwheat facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Frisco buckwheat |
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| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Eriogonum
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| Species: |
soredium
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The Frisco buckwheat (Eriogonum soredium) is a very special and rare wild plant. It's a type of wild buckwheat found only in Utah, United States. Specifically, you can only find it in Beaver County, living in the San Francisco Mountains. Because it's so rare, it's being considered for special protection by the government.
Contents
What Does It Look Like?
This little plant doesn't grow very tall, only about 4 centimeters (less than 2 inches) high. It often forms small, rounded clumps that can spread out up to 50 centimeters (about 20 inches) wide.
Leaves and Flowers
- Its leaves are small, rounded, or oval-shaped.
- They are covered in a soft, woolly fuzz.
- Each leaf is about 5 millimeters long and 2 millimeters wide.
- The flowers are tiny, about 3 millimeters wide.
- They can be white or a light pink color.
- These small flowers grow in clusters that look a bit like "drumsticks."
- The plant blooms during the summer, from June through August.
- After blooming, it produces small seeds, about 2 to 2.5 millimeters wide.
Where Does It Live?
The Frisco buckwheat is very picky about where it grows! It only lives on certain types of soil.
Special Soil and Location
- This plant grows only on soil made from Ordovician limestone.
- This special soil is found in the southern part of the San Francisco Mountains in Utah.
- There are about 845 acres of this type of soil in the mountains.
- However, the Frisco buckwheat only grows on about 52 acres of that land.
- Its entire home area is quite small, about 5 square miles.
- All four known groups of these plants are on land owned by private citizens.
- Scientists aren't sure exactly how many individual plants exist.
Plant Neighbors
The Frisco buckwheat shares its home with other interesting plants. These include:
- Mormon tea (Ephedra species)
- Snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae)
- Dwarf mountain-mahogany (Cercocarpus intricatus)
- Rock goldenrod (Petradoria pumila)
- It might even grow next to another rare plant, the Frisco clover (Trifolium friscanum).
- The area is mostly pinyon-juniper woodland and sagebrush habitats.
What Threats Does It Face?
This rare plant faces several challenges that make it hard for it to survive.
Mining and Land Use
- Mining has been happening in the San Francisco Mountains for a long time.
- More than 90% of the buckwheat's habitat is on land where mining claims exist.
- The land where the plant grows often has mining waste (tailings) and many old mine shafts and roads.
- These activities have damaged the plant's home.
- The Horn Silver Mine, a very famous silver mine from the 1800s, is in this area.
- While metal mining isn't as common now, there's still interest in finding precious metals.
- Today, gravel and limestone quarrying (digging for rock) is happening.
- This directly affects the Frisco buckwheat's habitat.
Other Dangers
- New Plants: Some plants, like cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), have been brought into the area.
- Cheatgrass can make wildfires happen more often.
- Scientists believe the Frisco buckwheat cannot survive fires well.
- Small Populations: Because there are so few Frisco buckwheat plants, they are very vulnerable.
- Small groups of plants can easily disappear completely from an area (this is called extirpation).
- Climate Change: Changes in the world's weather patterns, known as climate change, also threaten the plant.
- This includes more frequent periods of drought, which means less water for the plants.
A Bit of History
For hundreds of years, long before settlers arrived in the mid-1800s, the local indigenous peoples were thought to have harvested Eriogonum soredium as a crop.
