Annuals, 3-15 cm. Stems decumbent to ascending. Leaves: blades oblanceolate to linear, 5-20 mm, rarely lobed, ultimate margins, usually entire, plane (apices acute), faces sparsely woolly. Heads borne singly. Peduncles 1-5 cm. Involucres campanulate to obconic, 3-5 mm diam. Phyllaries 8-10, distinct. Ray florets 8-10; laminae white with red veins, 3-5 mm. Disc florets 10-20; corollas 2-3 mm (tubes cylindric, throats funnelform, gradually dilated, lobes glandular; anther appendages subulate, not glandular). Cypselae 2.5-4.5 mm; pappi of 5 subulate scales 1.5-2.5 mm plus 4-5 oblong scales ± 0.5 mm. 2n = 8.

Flowering Feb-May. Sandy or gravelly openings, desert scrublands; 70-1400 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev., N.Mex., Utah; Mexico (Baja California).

FNA 2006, Wiggins 1964, Kearney and Peebles 1969, Mooring and Johnson 2016 (Jepson Online Manual)

Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Low wooly annual herb, 3-15 cm tall; stems slender, decumbent to ascending, sparingly branched, and loosely floccose (covered with tufts of long, tangled hairs).

Leaves: Alternate and sessile; blades linear to narrowly oblanceolate, 5-20 mm long by 1-3 mm wide, acute to apiculate at apex and gradually narrowing toward base, sparsely wooly, with entire margins.

Flowers: Flower heads white and yellow, radiate, and solitary on slender peduncles 1-6 cm long; involucre (ring of bracts wrapped around flower head) bell-shaped, 5-6 mm high and 3-5 mm wide, the bracts (phyllaries) 8-11 in a single series, oblanceolate with short-acuminate tips, floccose; ray florets 8-10, the laminae (ray petals) white, occasinally with red veins, 3-7 mm long; disc florets 10-20, the corollas yellow to orange, 3 mm long.

Fruits: Achenes linear-obpyramidal, 3 mm long, black, sparsely strigose (with straight appressed hairs); topped with a pappus of 4-5 slender awns about the length of the corolla, and several shorter, obtuse scales.

Ecology: Found on arid mesas, gravelly slopes and in washes, from 1,000-3,000 ft (305-914 m); flowers March-April.

Distribution: AZ, CA, NV, NM, UT; south to Baja Calif., MEX.

Notes: Distinguished by its wooly herbage, slender awn-tipped achenes, and white to rosy ray petals; look carefully, as these tiny little plants are often overlooked when flowering in spring.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Eriophyllum comes from Greek erion for wool and phyllon for leaf; lanosum means woolly.

Synonyms: Antheropeas lanosum

Editor: SBuckley, 2010, AHazelton 2015