Leaves 1-2, 10-40 cm. Scape 20-80 cm, smooth or scabrous. Flowers: perianth yellow, tube 7-10 mm, much shorter than lobes, lobes spreading, 10-15 mm; short filaments 3 mm, long filaments 4-5.5 mm, apical appendages long, slender, often recurving; anthers cream or yellow, occasionally blue; pedicel 1-7 cm. 2n = 14.

Flowering May--Aug. Sandy soil in shade of oaks or pines; 0--1500 m; Calif.

Subspecies ixioides occurs in coastal California, sometimes on serpentine (San Mateo to San Luis Obispo counties). In the past it hybridized with Triteleia hyacinthina in Monterey to produce T. ×versicolor Hoover, which probably is extinct due to successional changes.