Herbs, spreading to erect, 2-3(-5) dm, glabrous or tomentose, greenish or reddish. Stems: aerial flowering stems erect, 0.5-1 dm, glabrous or tomentose. Leaves basal and sometimes cauline; basal: petiole 1-5 cm, tomentose to floccose, often slightly winged, blade oblanceolate or elliptic to ovate or nearly rounded, 1-2 × 0.5-1.5(-2) cm, tomentose abaxially, floccose to glabrate and grayish to greenish adaxially; cauline: petiole 0.5-2 cm, floccose, blade elliptic, 0.3-1 cm × 0.2-0.7 cm, similar to basal blade. Inflorescences cymose, distally uniparous due to suppression of secondary branches, open, 5-25 × 5-25 cm; branches usually inwardly curved, glabrous or tomentose; bracts 0.5-2.5 × 0.5-2 mm. Peduncles absent. Involucres somewhat appressed to branches, turbinate, 2.5-3 × 1.5-2 mm, glabrous; teeth 5, erect, 0.2-0.4 mm. Flowers 1.5-2 mm; perianth white to rose, glabrous; tepals monomorphic, oblong-obovate; stamens included, 1-1.5 mm; filaments pilose proximally. Achenes brown, 3-gonous, 1-1.5 mm.

The graceful, upwardly curved branch segments of Eriogonum cithariforme generally are distinctive in older plants, although an occasional individual of E. davidsonii may have this feature. A distinction between E. cithariforme and E. roseum also is troublesome, as in young material the curved branch segments are not always obvious.