Leaves 1-2, 10-40 cm. Scape 20-80 cm, smooth or scabrous. Flowers: perianth yellow, tube 7-10 mm, much shorter than lobes, lobes spreading, 10-15 mm; short filaments 3 mm, long filaments 4-5.5 mm, apical appendages long, slender, often recurving; anthers cream or yellow, occasionally blue; pedicel 1-7 cm. 2n = 14.
Flowering May--Aug. Sandy soil in shade of oaks or pines; 0--1500 m; Calif.
Subspecies ixioides occurs in coastal California, sometimes on serpentine (San Mateo to San Luis Obispo counties). In the past it hybridized with Triteleia hyacinthina in Monterey to produce T. Ă—versicolor Hoover, which probably is extinct due to successional changes.