Plants usually bulbose; bulb coat, when present, membranous. Stems usually stout, sparingly branching, not flexuous or twisted, 3-6 dm. Leaves: basal withering, 1-2 dm; blade linear, glaucous. Inflorescences subumbellate, 1-4-flowered; bracts opposite pedicel, 4-8 cm. Flowers erect; perianth open, campanulate; sepals usually with dark red blotch near base, lanceolate-ovate, 2-3 cm; petals yellow, often tinged purple in drying, cuneate to obovate, 3-5 cm; glands usually ± round, depressed, small, surrounded by conspicuously fringed membrane and a few long, yellow hairs, densely covered with slender, unbranched hairs; filaments 9-10 mm; anthers yellowish, oblong, 8-10 mm, apex obtuse. Capsules erect, lanceoloid-linear, angled, 5-8 cm, apex acuminate. Seeds flat. 2n = ca. 14.

Flowering late spring--mid summer. Dry slopes in chaparral and pine forest, frequently on decomposed granite; 700--2500 m; Calif.; Mexico (Baja California).