Plants subshrubs or herbs, spreading, 1–2.5 dm tall, 2–7 dm across; aerial flowering stems erect, 1–2 dm long, thinly floccose, without one or more foliaceous bracts about midlength; leaves in rather loose rosettes, the blades elliptic to oblong, (0.5) 1–1.5 (2) cm long, 0.4–0.8 cm wide, densely white-tomentose to lanate abaxially, white-tomentose to floccose or rarely glabrate and greenish adaxially, the margins plane; inflorescences umbellate, 1–3 cm long, the branches 1–2 cm long, thinly floccose, without a whorl of bracts about midlength; involucral tubes 3–4 mm long, the lobes 2–4 mm long; flowers (5) 6–7 mm long, the perianth bright yellow.

Flowering Jul-Sep. Sandy to gravelly serpentine slopes, oak and montane conifer woodlands; 1500–2300 m; Humboldt and Trinity cos., California, and in Jackson Co., Oregon.

All the pictures of Eriogonum umbellatum var. nelsoniorum were taken on King Mountain, Coyote Creek road, north of Grant Pass, August 4 th 2010, on Serpentine rocks.

Plants subshrubs or herbs, spreading, 10 to 25 cm tall.