Plants wandlike or candelabra-form, (2–)10–40(–50) cm. Basal leaves persisting; petiole present or absent; blade linear-lanceolate to linear, margins deeply to shallowly lobed. Cauline leaves: petiole absent; blade ovate-lanceolate to linear, to 15 cm, margins deeply to shallowly lobed or entire. Bracts green, ovate to linear, 3.7–8.6 × 0.8–3.9 mm, width 1/6–2/3 length, not concealing capsule, margins 3-lobed or entire, lateral lobes never prominent. Flowers: sepals 1–5 mm; petals orange proximally, yellow distally, 3–7(–8) mm, apex usually acute, rarely retuse; stamens 20+, 3–5 mm, filaments monomorphic, filiform, unlobed; styles 2–5 mm. Capsules clavate, 8–28(–35) × 1.5–3.5 mm, longest capsules usually 15+ mm, axillary curved to 180° at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed. Seeds 10–30, in 2+ rows distal to mid fruit, dark brown or tan, moderately to densely dark-mottled, usually irregularly polygonal, occasionally triangular prisms proximal to mid fruit, surface tuberculate under 10× magnification; recurved flap over hilum absent; seed coat cell outer periclinal wall domed, domes on seed edges more than 1/2 as tall as wide at maturity. 2n = 54, 72.
Dry, especially sandy soils, in desert valleys and foothills. Sand dunes, gravel fans, washes, desert scrub, sagebrush or antelope bitterbrush scrub, open ponderosa pine woodlands, pinyon/juniper woodlands; at elevations up to 2,300 metres.
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