Part of what makes this species so unique is its ability to thrive in a specific micro-habitat of gypsum soils. Gypsum is an uncommon mineral that was left behind in a handful of scattered deposits when the ancient sea that once covered New Mexico evaporated millions of years ago. The gypsum landscapes here are composed of highly abrasive bedrock and very fine soils that are especially sensitive to compaction and erosion. Due to a variety of characteristics, including reflection off its white color, rigid structure, and nearly impenetrable layers, very few plants are adapted to live in this soil. Like any plants in the desert, but perhaps even more so, these gypsum-loving (gypsophilic) plants are built for survival.
Gypsum is highly erodible, creating karst features that are all over the Carlsbad area. You can think of it as a landscape built like Swiss cheese - there are little holes, caves, and hollow ground beneath your feet everywhere you walk. While we don’t see much of it around here, the rain (when it comes) can really do a number on this place. Channels where water courses down and into the main draw weave their way through the landscape like a spider web of veins. Water has clearly left its mark and continues to shape this landscape. In the areas that gypsum wild buckwheat populates, bio-crust is essential for preventing erosion - not just from water, but also from the powerful winds that come each spring. These thick, dark colored and variously structured living crusts carpet the soil surface and stabilize it wherever plants have not established themselves. It can take decades or even centuries to build up bio-crust this robust, which is why we walk with such care across the landscape; knowing that without them, this whole area would be a powdery cloud that would have washed away many lifetimes ago.
