General: Perennial herb from an oblong-egg-shaped, scaly bulb, the bulbs clustered, the outer scales greyish or brownish, membranous, without a fibrous network, the inner scales whitish or pinkish; flowering stems erect, 20-60 cm tall, stout, cylindric, smooth.
Leaves: Usually 2, borne below the middle of the flowering stem, linear, cylindric, hollow, shorter than the stem, 1-2 mm wide, smooth, the margins entire.
Flowers: Inflorescence a compact, terminal, head-like cluster of usually many, stalked flowers, above 2 membranous, egg-shaped to lanceolate bracts, the stalks shorter than the flowers; flowers pale pink to purplish, vase-shaped, of 6 distinct tepals; tepals 8-12 mm long, lanceolate to elliptic, long-tapering to pointed tips, erect, in fruit becoming papery and enclosing the capsule; stamens 6, shorter than the tepals; pistil 1, 3-chambered.
Fruits: Capsules, more or less egg-shaped, 3-lobed, lacking distinct crests; seeds 6 or fewer, shiny-black.
Notes: Cultivated plants can occur as garden escapes.
Wet to moist meadows, streambanks and lake margins in the montane zone; infrequent in N and E BC; circumboreal, N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to ME, MA, VA, OH, MO, CO, UT, NV and OR; Eurasia.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
