Santa Clara sulphur flower

Eriogonum polyanthum Bentham var. bahiiforme Torrey & A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 8: 159. 1870 (as bahiaeforme)

Herbs, spreading mats, 0.8-2(-2.5) × 3-6 dm. Aerial flowering stems erect, usually 0.5-1.5 dm, tomentose, without one or more leaflike bracts ca. midlength. Leaves in rather compact rosettes; blade elliptic to oval, 0.5-1.5(-1.7) × 0.3-0.7 cm, densely white- to gray-lanate on both surfaces, margins plane. Inflorescences compound-umbellate, branched 2-5 times; branches tomentose, without a whorl of bracts ca. midlength; involucral tubes 2-3 mm, lobes 2-3.5(-4) mm. Flowers 5-8 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 bahiiforme occurs in widely scattered locations in the Central Coast Ranges (Colusa, Contra Costa, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, Santa Clara, and Sonoma counties) with a disjunct population in the San Gabriel Mountains of Los Angeles County. The more depauperate relative, var. minus, occurs in the mountains to the east.