Eriogonum cernuum Nuttall var. purpurascens Torrey & A. Gray in War Department [U.S.], Pacif. Railr. Rep. 2(1): 124. 1857

Herbs, spreading to erect, annual, 0.5-3 dm, glandular or glabrous, occasionally glaucous, greenish, grayish, or reddish. Stems: caudex absent; aerial flowering stems erect, solid, not fistulose, 0.3-1.5 dm, glandular or glabrous, occasionally glaucous. Leaves basal; petiole 0.5-2.5 cm, tomentose; blade broadly reniform to round, 0.5-2.5 × 0.5-2.5 cm, densely white-tomentose abaxially, floccose to glabrate and greenish adaxially, margins plane. Inflorescences cymose, open to diffuse, 5-20 × 5-20 cm; branches glandular or glabrous, occasionally glaucous; bracts 3, scalelike, 0.5-2 × 1-2.5 mm. Peduncles recurved to cernuous, curved or sometimes straight, slender, 0.3-1 cm, glandular or glabrous. Involucres campanulate, 2-3 × 2-3.5 mm, glandular or glabrous; teeth 5, erect, 0.5-1 mm. Flowers 2-3 mm; perianth white with greenish or reddish midribs, becoming rose or red, glabrous; tepals dimorphic, those of outer whorl oblong to oval, those of inner whorl oblanceolate; stamens included, 2-3 mm; filaments pilose proximally. Achenes brown, 3-gonous, 1.7-2 mm, glabrous.

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora): w United States.