Leaves 1-2, 10-50 cm. Scape 20-50 cm, usually scabrous. Flowers: perianth usually straw-colored to pale yellow, tube 3-7 mm, much shorter than lobes, lobes ascending to reflexed, 10-20 mm; short filaments 4-5 mm, long filaments 5-7 mm, apical appendages long, slender, straight to recurved; anthers cream or yellow, occasionally blue; pedicel 1-9 cm. 2n = 10 (11), 16, 24, 32.

Flowering spring (Mar--May, later at higher altitudes). Scrub edges, mixed or coniferous forests, foothill woodlands, valley grasslands, in clay and granite soils; 200--2200 m; Calif.