Small's sulphur flower

Eriogonum smallianum A. Heller, Bull. S. Calif. Acad. Sci. 2: 68. 1903

Herbs, spreading mats, 0.8-2(-2.5) × 3-5 dm. Aerial flowering stems erect, 0.5-1.5 dm, tomentose, without one or more leaflike bracts ca. midlength. Leaves in rather compact rosettes; blade elliptic, 0.5-1.5 × 0.3-0.7 cm, white-lanate to tomentose abaxially, thinly tomentose to floccose and greenish adaxially, margins plane. Inflorescences compound-umbellate, branched 1-3 times; branches tomentose, without a whorl of bracts ca. midlength; involucral tubes 2-3 mm, lobes 1-3 mm. Flowers 4-6 mm; perianth bright yellow.

Flowering Jul-Sep. Sandy to gravelly, mostly serpentine flats and slopes, oak and montane conifer woodlands; 700-2000 m; Calif.

Variety smallianum occurs in the North Coast Ranges (Glenn, Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma, Tehama, and Trinity counties) and is the counterpart to var. bahiiforme. It too is widely scattered in small, localized populations.