 
California Buckwheat plants.
Here are some of the native buckwheats, there are a number of other perennials and a whole lot of annuals not included.
Native
Buckwheats work in a native garden as babies breath does in a floral
arrangement. They are some of the most popular nectar sources for butterflies.
Blues and hairstreaks especially like buckwheats and many of these
species suffer from dwindling habitat. Their flowers seem to last
forever, turning a chocolate color in the fall. They are very drought
tolerant and can tolerate many arid environments as well as coastal
salt spray. (some coastal species).
Santa Cruz island
buckwheat has lite pink flower cluster that turn chocolate in winter.
It forms a tidy bush with erect foliage and sprawling branches. It can
tolerate seaside conditions as well as the hot and dry climate of the
interior. Santa Cruz island buckwheat is very drought tolerant. It is
very popular with hairstreaks and blues.(butterflies)
E.
cinereum is a coastal buckwheat
with gray foliage. It can tolerate seaside conditions.
E.
elongatum has long slender gray
flower stalks with small delicate pink flowers. It is very drought
tolerant.
California
buckwheat is very drought tolerant. The buds are pinkish and turn white
when they open. They cluster in tight little balls on long stalks and
turn a chocolate brown in the fall. It has green foliage.
Many
little animals and birds use it for cover. Coppers blues and hair
streaks use it for nectar. It grows in the chaparral in very dry hot
conditions.
The
above picture and the background of this page are both E.
fasc. fol.
Interior
California buckwheat is similar to regular California buckwheat but it
is more drought tolerant and has grayer foliage. In the photo here it
is mixed with Salvia
pachyphylla and other desert
species and is quite happy.
This
is California's largest buckwheat, in flower at least. It has huge
flower clusters often more than a foot wide. It has large gray foliage
and grows about three foot tall and three foot high. Although it is at
home in coastal conditions it also does fine in California's hot dry
interior valleys. It is very drought tolerant.
This pink buckwheat
is
found on the islands. It can tolerate coastal conditions. However, it
also does well in the interior of California only needing part shade to
survive the hot dry summers. It has nice round leaves and very pink
flowers. It looks great in a rock wall. It is smaller and more delicate
than many of the other buckwheat, only growing about a foot tall.
 Heermann's Buckwheat
is a rather weird plant from the desert. The part that you'll notice is the stem, not the flower or leaves.
This
coastal buckwheat has tall open flower stalks and gray basal leaves. It
is similar to E. grande
rubescens but opener and grayer
with white flowers.
can grow very large from a littly plant base. Naked Buckwheat
can't compete with weeds, so you'll find it outside of the fence line
along road cuts throughout much of California. 
A
bushy coastal buckwheat that does well under seaside conditions. Cliff
Buckwheat has pinkish flowers and gray foliage. It also does well in
clay and in hotter areas.
Sulfur buckwheat is
very
low growing, only a few inches tall, and very yellow. It grows at high
elevations, over 4000 ft, and likes good drainage. It does well in the
Santa Margarita nursery garden in decomposed granite and 110 deg.
summers.
Shrub
Sulphur Buckwheat is similar to E.
umb. But it grows 1 to 3 ft
tall. It also does well at high elevations. It has grayer foliage than
the other two subspecies here. It like good drainage.
 Shasta
Buckwheat is a very tidy, low growing buckwheat, with bright yellow
sulfur colored flowers. It likes good drainage and can't tolerate clay.
It is fairly hardy and can tolerate our hot dry summers.
This
is a really low growing buckwheat great for a rock garden. It has very
small crinkly leaves on spreading branches that cling to the rocky
outcroppings they like to inhabit. It has white to yellow flowers.
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Eriogonum crocatum, Saffron Buckwheat
