Plants 10-60 cm. Stems uniform toward base, 0.7-3.5 mm diam. distal to leaves; bracts 2-5(-10). Leaves prostrate to erect-spreading; blade 5-18 × 1.1-3.5 cm. Inflorescences sparsely flowered, ± secund, (2-)10-30 cm; rachis shorter than or equal to peduncle; bracts 3-10 mm. Flowers white, fragrance faint, harsh to honeylike; sepals oblong-elliptic, 1.8-3.5(-4.5) × 1-1.9 mm; dorsal sepal projecting to ± recurved; lateral sepals deflexed, ± twisted; petals usually projecting forward and ± connivent, white, midvein faintly green, asymmetrically lanceolate, 2-4 × 1 mm; lip recurved, triangular-ovate, (1.5-)2-3(-4 mm) × 1-2.8 mm; spur curved, tapered, 1.5-4 mm; viscidia broadly elliptic to ovate, 0.3-0.6 × 0.2-0.4 mm; rostellum ± elongate. Capsules 5-9 mm. Seeds cinnamon brown. 2n = 42.

Flowering late spring--summer (May--Aug). Conifer and mixed evergreen forests, chaparral, sometimes on serpentine soils, not more than 150 km from coast; 0--1500 m; B.C.; Alaska, Calif., Oreg., Wash.

The flowers in Piperia candida are more completely white and more ephemeral than in any other member of the genus.