The photo at right shows a close-up of a basal leaf blade of broom buckwheat. Photographed along Washington Highway 14 above Wishram, WA.......................October 7, 2006.

Broom buckwheat is an upright, non-mat forming buckwheat which is an annual. The erect stem arises from 5-40 cm high from a rosette of basal leaves, ovate to broadly elliptical in shape, which are mostly gray-tomentose below, less tomentose to green above. The leaf blades are from 5-30 cm long, nearly as wide, and have slender petioles, from 1-3 times as long as the blades.

The flower stem is branched two to three times, forming a cymose inflorescence with minute white, yellow, or pink clusters of flowers scattered the length of the branched stems.

Sandy or rocky soil from desert to sagebrush or pine forests.

A widespread species, Broom Buckwheat is found from Central Washington, southward along the east side of the Cascades into Mexico, eastwards towards the western edge of the Rocky Mts from southern Idaho to Arizona and New Mexico.

In the Columbia River Gorge, it may be found between the elevations of 100'-600' from Mosier, OR in the west to about Haystack Butte in the east.