Coville's sulphur flower

Eriogonum covillei Small, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 25: 42. 1898; E. umbellatum subsp. covillei (Small) Munz

Herbs, typically prostrate mats, 0.5-1 × 1-5 dm. Aerial flowering stems spreading to erect, 0.3-0.9 dm, thinly tomentose to nearly glabrous, without one or more leaflike bracts ca. midlength. Leaves in tight rosettes; blade usually narrowly elliptic, 0.3-0.6(-1) × 0.2-0.4(-0.6) cm, white-tomentose abaxially, slightly less so and greenish adaxially, margins plane. Inflorescences compact-umbellate; branches 0.2-1 cm, thinly tomentose to floccose, without a whorl of bracts ca. midlength; involucral tubes 1.5-2.5 mm, lobes 1-3 mm. Flowers 2-4(-5) mm; perianth bright yellow.

Flowering Jul-Sep. Gravelly to rocky or talus slopes and ridges, high-elevation sagebrush communities, alpine conifer woodlands; 3000-3600 m; Calif.

Variety covillei is restricted to the backbone of the Sierra Nevada in Inyo and Tulare counties, and the White Mountains in Mono County; it is rare throughout its range. Clearly it is an alpine derivative of var. nevadense, and some specimens can be difficult to place.