General: Perennial herb from a kidney-shaped, fleshy-scaled, whitish bulb 2-3 cm wide; stems 30-70 cm tall, sturdy, smooth.
Leaves: Usually in 1 or 2 whorls of 6 on the upper stem, the lower leaves alternate, usually overlapping, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 5-10 cm long, 0.3-1.2 cm wide, smooth.
Flowers: Inflorescence usually of a single flower, sometimes 2 or 3 in an umbel-like cluster, large, showy, erect atop the stem; flowers orange to brick-red, lighter and purplish-dotted in the throat, goblet-shaped, of 6 similar, distinct tepals, the tepals narrowly egg-shaped, tapering to a long claw, 5-7 cm long, 1-2 cm wide; stamens 6; pistil 1, 3-chambered.
Fruits: Capsules, erect, cylindric-egg-shaped, not sharply 6-angled, 2-5 cm long; seeds numerous, flattened.
Mesic meadows, edges of forests and open forests (often on limestone) in the steppe and montane zones; infrequent in the Peace River region, locally frequent in SE BC; E to PQ and S to KY, IA, TX and NM.
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)
