Stems erect, clustered (often a dozen or more) on a stout woody root, 3-6 dm at anthesis, very leafy, simple or branched above, villous or hirsute; lvs linear to lanceolate, 3-6 cm, rough-hirsute, the hairs papillate at base in var. croceum; cymes leafy-bracted, at first dense, becoming elongate and racemiform; fls heterostylic; cal-lobes hirsute, linear, 8-11 mm at anthesis, 10-15 mm at maturity; cor bright orange-yellow, the tube 7-14 mm, hairy at base within, the limb 1.5-2.5 cm wide; nutlets ivory-white, smooth and shining. Upland woods, shores, and prairies, especially in sandy soil; sw. Ont. and n. O. to Minn. and Wyo., s. to Ill., Nebr., and Okla. (var. croceum), and from se. Va. to Fla. and Tex. (var. caroliniense). May-July. (L. gmelini; L. croceum) Most of our plants are var. croceum (Fernald) Cronquist, as described above, with keeled cal-lobes and usually more than 30 lvs below the infl. Var. caroliniense, on the se. coastal plain, has flat cal-lobes and usually less than 25 lvs below the infl.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.