Description

Santa Barbara Island lies off the coast of Los Angeles, about 55 miles from the Palos Verdes Peninsula. It’s a small island, measuring just over a square mile in area. Like all the Channel Islands, it is scoured by high winds in the spring. This may explain the diminutive size of the Santa Barbara Island buckwheat. Years of heavy winds, and little natural protection, may have favored plants with a “crouching” form. This buckwheat grows as a dense mound of silvery white leaves to only about two feet in height. The leaf size and shape is the same as the taller giganteum variety, but the plant does not open up with age. The flower umbels rise about a foot above the foliage. This rare buckwheat has thrived in my San Jose garden for many years in a well-draining, sunny bed that receives no supplemental water. I planted it at the edge of a brick retaining wall to allow the leaves to drape over the wall.