E. elatum - late flowering, large ovate to arrowhead shaped basal leaves on petioles about leaf-length, very tall flower stems, usually highly branched, leafless, giving a rather sparse open look with small flowers.
E. heracleoides - usually with large leafy mid-stem bract (often missing in certain areas), largish plant, flowers cream to pink infused
E. ovalifolium - very low silvery to greyish foliage (occasionally green) varying from small upright paddle-like leaves to densely packed curled leaves, often forming sizeable mats. One variety has brown margins on leaves. With close inspection three tepals are much narrower and longer than others. Flowers can be candy-striped, or pale to bright yellow, or sometimes dark pink or even red. Flower bracts form a cluster of several conical bract sheaths, each bearing several flowers. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/171453389
E. sphaerocephalum - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/163335630
E. thymoides - easy to recognized from small neat rounded habit and thymelike leaves. sometimes old plants sprawl and have a larger woody base but the growing parts still have the neat habit. This and E. douglasii are usually found in very rocky shallow soil (scabland).
E. umbellatum - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/120446928
E. niveum and E. strictum are similar but differentiated by the leafy bract below the flower branches in E. niveum. Some E. strictum may not have single flower clusters, not secondary umbels?
Burke: "The leafy bracts below the flowers throughout the inflorescence separates E. niveum from the similar E. strictum, which has no leafy bracts." JHT adds - the bract leaves are smaller than the basal leaves but similarly hairy and silver in tone.
https://burkeherbarium.org/imagecollection/photo.php?Photo=wtu041148&Taxon=Eriogonum%20niveum&SourcePage=taxon
Comments and links on iNat:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/724985
From jdjohnson:
"Dimorphic tepals means that three tepals are wide and three tepals are narrow. If you find a close-up photo of Eriogonum ovalifolium flowers, you can see the difference."
E. ovalifolium: apparent with a good close up of individual flowers that are well opened, and then dimorphic tepals are very clear, e.g. photo 3 of https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/44852252), with the inner whorl much narrower than the outer.
