General description: Densely matted perennial, 6-10 cm tall, and with numerous underground caudices.  Flowering stems are glabrous, scapose, bearing 3-4 involucres per head. Flowers white to pinkish, 2.5-3.5 mm long, stamens exserted. Peduncles are absent. Leaves are narrowly oblanceolate or lanceolate, 3-9 mm wide, green above, tomentose below, and leaf margins are slightly rolled under, or flat (Spackman et al. 1997, Ackerfield 2012, Weber and Wittmann 2012).

Look Alikes: Not likely to be confused with other species in the same range and habitat (Spackman et al. 1997, Anderson 2004).

Phenology: Eriogonum coloradense flowers from July to August and bears fruit into September. Plants are green and visible through September (Anderson 2004).

Eriogonum coloradense is unusual in that it has an extremely broad ecological range. It has been documented on every soil texture, slope, and aspect. It has been found on sedimentary, granitic, and volcanic substrates, with Artemisia species (sagebrush) and Bouteloua gracilis (blue grama) and also with alpine cushion plants. It is found on a variety of geomorphic landforms, usually on talus, fellfields, rock shoots, and ridges, but also on roadsides. Reveal (personal communication 2002) described the habitat as rocky talus on the margins of meadows, grassland communities, high elevation sagebrush, sometimes with montane or subalpine conifers, and on sandy to gravelly flats and slopes. The best information currently available on E. coloradense is from high elevation sites. More work is needed to better understand the habitat of E. coloradense throughout its range (Anderson 2004).  

Elevation Range: 8,714 - 14,258 feet (2,656 - 4,346 meters)

Colorado endemic: Yes
Global range: Endemic to Colorado; known from Chaffee, Gunnison, Park, Pitkin, and Saguache counties. Estimated range is 9,318 square kilometers (3,598 square miles), calculated in GIS by drawing a minimum convex polygon around the known occurrences (calculated by the Colorado Natural Heritage Program in 2008).

Recreational uses are considered to be the primary threat to the species at this time (Anderson 2004, Rondeau et al. 2011). The species is also threatened by grazing and its secondary effects, right-of-way management, residential development, exotic species invasion, effects of small population size, mining, rust, global climate change, and pollution. Some threats are more urgent at some sites than at others (Anderson 2004).