The Siskiyou Wild Rivers area in southwestern Oregon is one of the few regions in the lower 48 with such extraordinary biodiversity. This week's featured wildflower will draw you in with its looks and stun you with its smell.

"Dirty Socks," Eriogonum pyrolifolium

When hiking this month on Oregon’s higher, dry, alpine slopes, be on the look out (or perhaps the “sniff out”) for a plant with small clusters of cream colored flowers best known as “Dirty Socks.” This native wild buckwheat species is so named due to the remarkable fragrance of its flowers which remind most people of the smell of sweaty, unwashed socks.

Ranging primarily from Mt. Stuart, Washington to Mt. Lassen, California, Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park is an easy place to access this wildflower that can be viewed on many of the park’s pumice flats immediately below Rim Drive.

Other “common names” that Eriogonum pyrolifolium also goes by are: Shasta Buckwheat, Pyrola-leafed Buckwheat, Alpine Buckwheat, Alpine Eriogonum, or Oarleaf Buckwheat—but I like the name “Dirty Socks” the best.