Taprooted, hirsutulous annual or biennial; lvs oblanceolate to obovate, 5-10(-15) cm, obtuse, entire or inconspicuously toothed; scape to 2 dm; spikes 3-10(-20) cm נ6-8 mm; bracts lanceolate, mostly shorter than the cal, hirsutulous, a scarious margin scarcely developed; sep oblong-obovate, rounded above, the keel hirsutulous, the scarious margin broad and glabrous; cor-lobes 1-3 mm, erect and connivent even in fr; seeds 2, 1.3-2 mm, less than half as wide, convex on the back, strongly concave on the inner face, the hilum nearly as long as the seed; 2n=24. Occasional plants have chasmogamous fls with spreading cor-lobes. A spring ephemeral of dry or sandy soil, often weedy; Mass. and N.Y. to Wis., Io., and S.D., s. to Fla. and Tex., and intr. westward.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.