Plants shrubs, erect to spreading, not scapose, (2) 3–10 (12) dm tall, 5–15 (20) dm across, white-tomentose to floccose, or green and nearly glabrous; stems spreading, often without persistent leaf bases, up to 1⁄2 height of plant, the caudex stems absent or spreading in moving sand, the aerial flowering stems spreading, slender, solid, not fistulose, 0.3–1 dm long, white-tomentose, floccose to glabrate or glabrous; leaves cauline, 1 per node, the petioles 0.2–0.5 cm long, tomentose to floccose, the blades linear-lanceolate to linear-oblanceolate to narrowly oblong, or lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 1.5–4 cm long, 0.2–0.8 (1.2) cm wide, densely white- tomentose abaxially, less so and greenish adaxially, the margins plane, infrequently revolute; inflorescences cymose, open, 5–40 cm long, 10–50 cm wide, the branches dichotomous proximally, often with involucres racemosely arranged proximally, tomentose to floccose or glabrate, occasionally glabrous, the bracts 3, scalelike, linear to triangular, 1–3 (6) mm long; peduncles absent; involucres 1 per node, turbinate to turbinate-campanulate, 1.5–3 mm long, 1–2 mm wide, tomentose to floccose or glabrous, the teeth 5, erect, 0.4–0.7 mm long; flowers (2) 2.5–3.5 mm long, the perianth white or pale yellow to yellow, glabrous, the hypanthium 1⁄4-1⁄3 length of perianth, essentially monomorphic, oblong to broadly obovate, the stamens slightly exserted, 2–4 mm long, the filaments sparsely pilose proximally; achenes light brown, 2.5–3.5 mm long, glabrous except for minutely papillate beaks.

• Perianth pale yellow to yellow : Eriogonum leptocladon var. leptocladon.
• Perianth white:
  • Flowering stems and inflorescence branches tomentose, rarely floccose: Eriogonum leptocladon var. ramosissimum.
  • Flowering stems and inflorescence branches glabrous: Eriogonum leptocladon var. papiliunculi.

Flowering Jun-Oct. White or infrequently red blow sand on flats, washes and slopes, mixed grassland, saltbush, ephedra, and sagebrush communities, pinyon-juniper woodlands; 1200–2100 m; Emery, Garfield, San Juan, and Wayne cos. in Utah, and in Montezuma Co., Colorado, south to Apache, western Coconino, and Navajo cos., Arizona, and San Juan Co., New Mexico.

All the pictures of Eriogonum leptocladon var. ramossisimum have been taken on September 6 th 2014 in Petrified National National Park in Arizona.