Plants bulbose; bulb coat membranous. Stems usually branching, 1-6 dm. Leaves: basal withering, 1-2 dm; blade linear. Inflorescences subumbellate, 1-6(-10)-flowered; bracts 2-8 cm. Flowers erect; perianth open, campanulate; sepals lanceolate, 3-5 cm, apex recurved; petals white to brightly or deeply yellow, purple, or dark red, with dark red median blotch, often with second paler distal blotch, obovate or cuneate to clawed, rounded, 3-5 cm, with scattered proximal hairs, apex retuse to obtuse; glands in lower middle of petal, ± square, sometimes ovate, not depressed, covered with short, orange to red-purple hairs; filaments usually equaling anthers; anthers linear-lanceolate to oblong. Capsules erect, linear, angled, 5-6 cm. Seeds light beige, ± flat, 4-6 mm. 2n = 14.

Flowering mid spring--mid summer. Light sandy soil, often in decomposed granite in valley grassland, foothill woodland, and pine forest; 300--2700 m; Calif.

Flower color and pattern are very showy and exceedingly variable in Calochortus venustus.