Plants 0.5-2 dm. Aerial flowering stems not fistulose, 0.3-1.2 dm, glabrous. Leaves basal; blade 1-2 × 0.5-1.5 cm, densely tomentose abaxially, glabrous adaxially, margins plane. Inflorescences capitate or cymose and branched 1-2 times, 5-20 × 10-20 cm; branches glabrous. Involucres 5-10 per cluster, 3.5-5 mm, glabrous. Flowers 3-3.5 mm; perianth white, glabrous.

Flowering Jun-Oct. Sandy to gravelly flats, mesas, or coastal bluffs, mixed grassland and manzanita communities, oak and scattered conifer woodlands; 0-80(-600) m; Calif., Oreg.

Variety paralinum occurs along the immediate coast in Curry County, Oregon, and Del Norte County, California. This variety bridges the morphologic gap between Eriogonum nudum and E. latifolium. S. G. Stokes (1936) combined the two species, and her action can be justified. That taxonomy, however, would entail recognition of two subspecies, one each for what are maintained here as species, and little would be gained by such action.