Plants candelabra-form, 5–40 cm. Basal leaves persisting; petiole present or absent; blade linear, margins usually shallowly lobed, lobes rounded. Cauline leaves: petiole absent; blade ovate-lanceolate to linear, to 12 cm, margins shallowly lobed or entire. Bracts green, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 3.6–4.7 × 1.6–2.3 mm, width 1/3–1/2 length, not concealing capsule, margins entire. Flowers: sepals 2–4 mm; petals yellow to orange proximally, yellow distally, 2–6 mm, apex acute or rounded; stamens 10–30, 2–4 mm, filaments monomorphic, filiform, unlobed; styles 2–4 mm. Capsules clavate, 12–27 × 1–2.5 mm, axillary curved to 180° at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed. Seeds 10–50, in 2+ rows distal to mid fruit, tan, usually not, occasionally sparsely, dark-mottled, usually irregularly polygonal, occasionally triangular prisms proximal to mid fruit, surface tessellate under 10× magnification; recurved flap over hilum absent; seed coat cell outer periclinal wall flat to slightly convex. 2n = 18.
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