Herbs, perennial, cespitose, dark green to ashy olive when dry, to 3.2 dm, not glaucous. Stems simple, 0.6-1.7 mm wide, glabrous, margins usually entire, similar in color and texture to stem body. Leaf blades glabrous, bases not persistent in fibrous tufts. Inflorescences borne singly; spathes green, glabrous, keels entire; outer 13-20 mm, 1-2.4 mm longer than inner, tapering evenly towards apex, margins basally connate 3.8-5.5 mm; inner with keel ± straight, hyaline margins 0.2-0.7 mm wide, apex extending as 2 rounded or broadly erose lobes, ending just proximal to or slightly exceeding green apex. Flowers: tepals deep yellow to yellowish orange with brownish veins; outer tepals 7.5-8.5 mm, apex obtuse or rounded; filaments ± distinct or connate to 1/2 their length, glabrous; ovary similar in color to foliage. Capsules dark brown, globose to turbinate or broadly fusiform, 5-7.9 mm; pedicel recurved to spreading. Seeds hemispherical, with slight depression on one side, 1-1.2 mm, smooth. 2n = 34.

Flowering late spring--late summer. Moist montane areas, bogs, edges of marshes, stream banks, meadows; 1100--2700 m; Calif.