Plants herbs, usually spreading mats, 1–3 dm tall, 5–15 dm across; aerial flowering stems erect, (0.8) 1–2 dm long, thinly tomentose to floccose or glabrous, often with single foliaceous bract about mid-length; leaves in loose rosettes, the blades oblanceolate to elliptic, (0.7) 1–2 (2.5) cm long, 0.4–1 cm wide, mostly thinly tomentose abaxially, floccose or glabrous adaxially, the margins often finely wavy; inflorescences umbellate or compound-umbellate, branched 2–4 times, the branches usually floccose or glabrous, without a whorl of bracts about mid-length; involucral tubes 2–3 mm long, the lobes 2–3 (4) mm long; flowers 3–8 mm long, the perianth bright yellow.

Flowering Jun-Sep. Gravelly to rocky serpentine slopes and ridges, oak and montane conifer woodlands; (900) 1500–2200 (2500) m; Siskiyou/Trinity mountains of Josephine and Jackson cos., Oregon, and in Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Plumas, Siskiyou, and Trinity cos., California.

Inflorescences umbellate or compound-umbellate, branched 2–4 times, the branches usually floccose or glabrous, without a whorl of bracts about mid-length; involucral tubes 2–3 mm long, the lobes 2–3 (4) mm long.

Stem with 3 foliaceous bract about mid-length. When I questioned Jim Reveal about the variability of Eriogonum umbellatum var. argus, he told me that a same population could have 1 or 2 foliaceous bracts about mid-length or none at all.