Botanical Descriptions and Identification Information for a selected list of Eriogonums. (more taxa and descriptive information will be added over time) See the glossary for explanation of the botanical terms used.This following list contains only a very small portion of the hundreds of species which are known. They are separated into three groups by several fairly easy to recognize characteristics, based mainly on the groups used by Dr. James Reveal's treatment of eriogonums in the Hitchcock & Cronquist's "Flora of the Pacific Northwest" Then there is a little bit of additional information useful for checking to see if a plant you are growing is correctly named on your label. I plan to make this a continually growing list.

Group 1 - Plants perennial; Perianth abruptly stipe like at the attenuated base (illus. A above); bracts on the flowering stem are leaflike and there can be two or more in a whorl.
  • Eriogonum androsaceum - densely mat forming plants with hairy flowers,
  • Eriogonum caespitosum - no leaves below the head-like inflorescence.
  • Eriogonum compositum - heart shaped to triangular leaves.
  • Eriogonum douglasii-
  • Eriogonum douglassii v. douglasii-
  • Eriogonum flavum-
  • Eriogonum heracleoides - usually with a whorl of leafy bracts half-way up the flower stem. Leaves generally linear to lanceolate. Flowers usually white or cream colored.
  • Eriogonum jamesii - Bright sulfur yellow flowers, which are hairy.
  • Eriogonum jamesii v. flavescens-
  • Eriogonum sphaerocephalum-
  • Eriogonum thymoides-
  • Eriogonum umbellatum - A very variable species, with many varieties. Flower stems leafless in the middle, but often with leaves right at the top where the flower stem branches into the umbel, leaves generally oval. The hairless flowers, may be cream to yellow, often with overtones of red or reddish-purple.
  • Eriogonum umbellatum v. porteri - Flower heads, usually head-like and unbranched. Leaves hairless on both sides. (They plants we have grown from seed are by far the smallest and most delicate form of E. umbellatum we have grown.)
Group 2 - Plants perennial; Perianth not stipe like or attenuated at the base (illus. B above); bracts on the flowering stem generally scale-like.
  • Eriogonum aretioides - The flowers are borne right down on the small mounded plants.
  • Eriogonum brevicaule v. laxifolium -
  • Eriogonum ovalifolium -
  • Eriogonum ovalifolium v. depressum -
  • Eriogonum ovalifolium v. nivale-
  • Eriogonum ovalifolium v. purpureum-
  • Eriogonum panguicense v. alpestre - nice small plants with small gray leaves (even smaller than E. caespitosum) flowers are white to reddish.
  • Eriogonum strictum v. proliferum-
Group 3 - Plants annual
  • Eriogonum vimieum-
  • Eriogonum cernuum
Which Group ? (

I have not yet gotten hold of botanical descriptions of these taxa.)

  • Eriogonum sp. ex. Big Horn Mountains - purchased from Siskiyou Rare Plant Nursery, nice leaves form a mat less than one inch high with umbels of creamy flowers on 6 to 8 in. stems.
  • Eriogonum kennedyi v austromontanum-
  • Eriogonum lobbii -
  • Eriogonum wrightii v. subscaposum-
 BONAP Polygonaceae Listing- A complete list of all the taxa in the genus eriogonum in North America north of Mexico based on Kartez's Checklist .

18 April 1997

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