Plants herbs, often rather compact mats, 1–3.5 dm tall, 2–6 dm across; aerial flowering stems erect, 1–2 (3) dm long, thinly floccose or glabrous, without one or more foliaceous bracts about midlength; leaves in loose rosettes, the blades usually elliptic, 1–2 cm long, 0.5–1.5 cm wide, glabrous on both surfaces (except in central Idaho, where sparsely floccose even at full maturity), the margins plane; inflorescences umbellate, the branches 0.3–2 (2.5) cm long, without a whorl of bracts about midlength; involucral tubes 1.8–3 mm long, the lobes 1–3 mm long; flowers 4–7 mm long, the perianth bright yellow.

All the pictures of Eriogonum umbellatum var. aureum have been taken on Austin Pass on Highway 50 in Nevada. June 8 th 2014.

Flowering Jun-Sep. Sandy to gravelly or occasionally rocky flats and slopes, mixed grassland and sagebrush communities, pinyon and/or juniper and montane conifer woodlands; (1400) 1600–3200 (3400) m.