Herbs, perennial, 4--25(--30) cm tall, glabrous. Taproot red-brown to dark brown; bark unbroken. Caudex thickened, usually enlarged and woody with age, becoming many-headed, usually covered with red-brown scales and persistent petioles. Leaves basal, rarely 1-or 2 along basal part of peduncle, usually withering by anthesis; petiole narrow; leaf blade oblong-lanceolate to oblanceolate, 1.5--3(--5) X 0.2--0.5(--1.5) cm including petiole, base attenuate, apex rounded, obtuse, or rarely acute. Inflorescences 2 to several, arising from different rosettes, paniculate; rachis usually 4--7 X dichotomously branched and flexuous, often densely verrucose, with basal branches sterile; spikes terminal on apical branches, with 3--5(--7) spikelets; spikelets 2-or 3-flowered; bracts broadly ovate, 2.5--3.5 mm; first bractlet 5.5--6 mm. Calyx funnelform, 5.5--6 mm; tube ca. 1 mm in diam.; limb golden to orange-yellow; lobes usually with projecting veins and awned to mucronate. Corolla orange. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Jul-Aug.
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