Plants 5-30(-40) cm; scape usually glabrous, sometimes glandular-puberulent proxi-mally. Caudices not obvious at anthesis; roots whitish; bulblets absent. Leaves 3-13(-18) × 0.7-2.5(-4) cm; petiole slender (at least proximally); blade narrowly oblanceolate to spatulate or obovate, base usually not decurrent onto stem, usually abruptly tapering to petiole, margins entire, surfaces glabrous or glandular-puberulent. Inflorescences 1-7(-10)-flowered; bracts lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, 3-10 mm, glandular-puberulent. Pedicels 1-5 cm, glabrous or glandular-puberulent. Flowers: calyx light green to yellowish, sometimes finely purple-speckled or -dotted, 5-12 mm, glabrous or glandular-puberulent, tube 2-6 mm, lobes 5, 3-7 mm; corolla tube yellowish with purplish red, thin, wavy ring, lobes 5, usually magenta, sometimes white, 7-25(-35) mm; filaments usually distinct, yellowish or dark maroon, 0.5-1.5 mm, rarely partially connate and tube 0.5-1.5 × 1.5-5 mm; anthers 5-9 mm; pollen sacs usually maroon or yellow, sometimes yellowish and speckled maroon, rarely with reddish purple to purple speckles, connective usually maroon, sometimes yellowish or light blue to whitish, transversely rugose; stigma not enlarged compared to style. Capsules tan, often striped with purple, usually operculate, rarely valvate, cylindric-ovoid, 8-17(-22) × 4-6(-8) mm, glabrous; walls thin, pliable. Seeds without membrane along edges. 2n = 44.

Both Dodecatheon conjugens and D. poeticum occur in proximity in the Columbia River gorge. Some specimens here assigned to var. conjugens may have scattered, minute glands on the pedicels that might indicate past hybridization with D. poeticum (e.g., G. N. Jones 6286, ORE; R. R. Halse 3790, OSC, WTU). Dodecatheon poeticum is densely glandular not only on the pedicels, but also on the calyx and scape. The type of minute glandular puberulence seen on var. conjugens found along the Columbia River west of The Dalles is somewhat similar to that seen on var. viscidum in western Montana and Canada. Some plants referred here to D. conjugens have slightly connate filaments that may indicate some intergradation with D. pulchellum var. pulchellum. This suggestion is supported by the tendency in the same plants to have narrower leaves.

Some newly emerged flowers tend to have connectives that are less rugose than normal. This is particularly true of some populations in southern Alberta and, to a lesser degree, in Saskatchewan.