General: Perennial herb from a scaly, narrowly egg-shaped bulb 1-4 cm long; flowering stems erect, 20-50 cm tall, smooth.
Leaves: Basal leaves 2 or 3, narrowly lanceolate and grass-like, 10-30 cm long, 3-20 mm wide, smooth, sheathing at the base, the margins entire; stem leaves 2 or 3 much-reduced bracts.
Flowers: Inflorescence an elongate, narrow, terminal cluster of 5 to 25, stalked flowers, the stalks 1-3 cm long, ascending to erect; flowers greenish-yellow to brownish-purple, narrowly bell-shaped, usually nodding, of 6 similar tepals fused at the base, the tepals narrowly lanceolate, 8-15 mm long, the gradually tapering tips curved back; stamens 6; pistil 1, 3-chambered.
Fruits: Capsules, oblong-lanceolate, slenderly 3-beaked, erect, 1-2 cm long; seeds several, oblong, flat, winged at both ends, 2-4 mm long.
Moist to wet open forests, thickets, boggy meadows, streambanks and rocky slopes in the montane to alpine zones; frequent in SW and SE BC north to 52degreeN, rare in extreme SC BC; E to AB and S to MT, ID and CA.
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)
