Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous annuals, to 30 cm tall, stems several, leafy to the inflorescence, herbage white-tomentose or lanate, with a woody caudex but not noticeably woody above ground.

Leaves: Alternate, suborbiculate to cordate, 5-18 mm long and 15-20 mm wide, margins revolute, acute to obtuse at the tips, lower surfaces hoary-tomentose, upper surfaces glabrous, or usually less hairy than beneath, petioles 1-4 cm long.

Flowers: Perianth white becoming pink or pale yellow, sometimes aging red, 1.5-2 mm long, glabrous, the outer lobes narrowly fan-shaped, inner oblanceolate, involucres campanulate, hairy to tomentose, appressed, 1.5-2 mm long, stamens 9, included, filaments pilose below, inflorescence bracts inconspicuous, flowers sessile, solitary but close together, usually on short, nearly horizontal flexuous branches with short nodes.

Fruits: Achenes brown, 1.5-2 mm, narrow, trigonous, not conspicuously winged.

Ecology: Found on sandy or gravelly soils, in washes, flats, and slopes, saltbush, greasewood, creosote bush, blackbrush, and sagebrush communities, pi-on and/or juniper woodlands and dry thickets from 1,000- 9,000 ft (305-2743 m); March-October.

Distribution: Arizona, California, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah.

Notes: This species differs from E. plumatella (a synonym for a parent species, E. plumatella var. palmeri) in its annual habit, with upper leaf surfaces that are glabrous to tomentose (but less than beneath), involucres which are hairy or tomentose, the branches of the inflorescence nearly horizontal; E. plumatella is perennial, has leaf surfaces tomentose both above and below, and has inflorescence branches that are horizontal, reflexed, or recurved, and involucres which are glabrous except for the margins. FNA notes that this species is not the same as E. palmeri, and Eriogonum palmerianum is common and widespread, sometimes becoming locally abundant and even weedy. In Arizona and New Mexico, it occurs mainly in the Sonoran Desert.

Ethnobotany: There is no use recorded for this species, but other species in this genus have uses.

Synonyms: Eriogonum plumatella var. palmeri

Editor: LCrumbacher 2012

Etymology: Eriogonum comes from the Greek erion, "wool," and gonu, "joint or knee," in reference to the hairy or woolly joints of some of the species of the genus, while palmerianum is after self-taught botanist, professional plant collector and amateur zoologist, archaeologist and ethnologist Edward Palmer (1829/1830--1911).