Stems 6-20 cm. Leaves 2-3(-4), petiolate; blade often mottled with purple, elliptic to oblong, 14-24 × 4.5-8 cm. Flowers 3-12; outer tepals mottled with green and purple, ovate-lanceolate, 12.5-19 mm; inner tepals linear-subulate, 11.5-19 × 0.5 mm; filaments 2.3-4.3 mm; anthers 2-2.8 mm; style 4.5-6 mm; stigmas strongly recurved; pedicel strongly recurved in fruit, 11-22 cm. Capsules 22-30 × 6-9 mm, including beak. 2n = 16.

Flowering late winter--early spring. Redwood and coastal coniferous forests, mossy mountain stream banks, shaded slopes; 0--500 m; Calif.

R. Y. Berg (1959) demonstrated for Scoliopus bigelovii (and his findings also apply to S. hallii) that a single flower functions as three independent pollination units, a feature usually associated with Iris (F. H. Utech 1992).