Life After Lawn: Go wild over Payne’s buckwheat

This is one part in a weekly series featuring the UC Davis Arboretum’s “Life After Lawn” series – 45 can’t-fail, easy-care, low-water plants well-adapted to our region and ideal for drought-tolerant landscapes.

Payne’s wild buckwheat

Eriogonum fasciculatum “Theodore Payne”

Size: Grows to 1 foot tall and 3 to 5 feet wide at maturity.

Bloom season: In summer, creamy white flowers on branched stalks produce condensed balls of blooms.

Exposure: Full sun preferred; will tolerate afternoon shade.

Pruning needs: Little or none; pinch tips of stems when young to encourage branching; remove dead flower stalks in winter.

Water needs: Low to very low water use; once established, needs irrigation once a month in summer – if at all.

Snapshot: Several cultivars of California native plants are named for Theodore Payne, a pioneering botanist and nurseryman who “tamed” many of the state’s wildflowers for home gardeners more than a century ago. This buckwheat is one of Payne’s real winners for today’s drought-minded gardeners. A tough, evergreen, creeping groundcover, Payne’s wild buckwheat is covered with apple-green, needlelike foliage. Excellent for slopes and dry gardens, this buckwheat will tolerate some shade if necessary. As it grows and spreads, it stays compact to create a nice tight mat of foliage. Its rounded clusters of white flowers attract smaller butterflies as well as bees and other beneficial insects. The big bonus: Buckwheat needs very little irrigation in summer. That makes it ideal for dry gardens.

For more on “Life After Lawn,” click on arboretum.ucdavis.edu.

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Life After Lawn: Go wild over Payne’s buckwheat."