Eriogonum cinereum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common names coastal buckwheat and ashyleaf buckwheat. This shrub is endemic to the coastline of California, where it grows on beaches and bluffs and in coastal scrub and chaparral. This plant may reach up over a meter in height and width and is light silvery gray in color due to the woolly hairs on its stems and foliage. The leaves are wavy-edged ovals one to three centimeters long. The flower clusters stick out from the plant, each with one to several heads of tiny tightly-packed frilly flowers which are usually light brownish-pink in color and quite hairy. This is the foodplant for Euphilotes bernardino, the Bernardino dotted blue butterfly.

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