Plants usually bulbose; bulb coat fibrous-reticulate. Stems slender, branching, straight, 3-6 dm. Leaves basal withering, 2-3 dm; blade linear-lanceolate. Inflorescences 2-6-flowered. Flowers erect; perianth opening flat, campanulate; sepals often reflexed, lanceolate, 1-3 cm, glabrous, apex long-tapered; petals yellow to deep orange, purple-brown at tip, oblong-ovate, 1-2 cm, conspicuously bearded, margins fringed or dentate, apex fringed with hairy tufts; glands round, slightly depressed, glabrous, surrounded and obscured by ring of slender, dense hairs united at base; filaments 7-8 mm; anthers oblong, apex acute. Capsules erect, linear, 3-angled, 3-4 cm, apex acute. Seeds light yellow, translucent. 2n = 18.

Flowering late spring--mid summer. Dry stony hills, canyons, edge of chaparral, serpentine; of conservation concern; 100--500 m; Calif.

Calochortus obispoensis is restricted to San Luis Obispo County.