Winged buckwheat (Pterogonum alatum)

Buckwheat basal rosette

Iris missouriensis

Field of iris

One of Saturday's unkonwn plants is winged buckwheat (Eriogonum alatum or Pterogonum alatum). The basal rosette of leaves and small, yellow flowers were the keys to figuring it out. We took a drive up to South Park to escape the heat in the city. We saw field after field of wild iris (Iris missouriensis), carpeting the wet meadows with purple.