Plants 3-8 dm, glabrescent with age. Stems sparingly branched. Leaves 4-15 × 2-4 cm; blade ovate to lanceolate, rounded to subcordate basally, abaxial surface veins and margins pubescent, hairs scattered, flattened, apex sharply acuminate, with (3-)5 prominent veins. Flowers 1-3(-4); perianth broadly campanulate; tepals creamy white spotted with purple, ovate-lanceolate, abruptly narrowly clawed basally, 15-25 mm, apex acuminate; stamens exserted; filaments filiform, 15-20 mm; anthers 3-6 mm; ovary obconic to obpyriform, becoming 3-lobed after anthesis, papillose with ascending, stellate glandular hairs, ovules 2-4 per locule, horizontal; style 1.4-2.3 cm, glabrous; stigma 3-lobed. Berries pale straw-colored, 3-lobed, 6-10-seeded, 10-15 mm, papillose with stellate hairs arising from papillae; lobes subglobose. Seeds 4 mm. 2n = 12.

Flowering early--late spring. Rich, moist, deciduous woods, slopes and ravines; 100--800 m; Ala., Ga., Ky., Mich., N.C., Ohio, Tenn., Va., W.Va.

This rare old-forest obligate is readily distinguished by its purple-spotted, clawed tepals and its three-lobed, straw-colored, hairy-papillose fruit (R. G. Johnson 1968).