Bulbs ovoid, 30-55 mm, sometimes producing sessile bulbels. Leaves 7-20 cm; blade mottled with irregular streaks of brown or white, broadly lanceolate to ovate, margins ± wavy. Scape 12-30 cm. Inflorescences 1-3-flowered. Flowers fragrant; tepals ± white, bright yellow at base, pinkish in age, lanceolate to ovate, 25-40 mm, inner with small auricles at base; stamens 8-13 mm; filaments ± yellow, linear, ± slender, less than 0.8 mm wide; anthers yellow; style ± white, often bent to one side, 5-8 mm; stigma unlobed or with lobes shorter than 1 mm. Capsules obovoid, 2-4 cm. 2n = 24.

Flowering spring (Mar--Apr). Dry woods or scrub, on serpentines; 500--1200 m; Calif. (vicinity of Mount St. Helena).