Herbs, perennial, cespitose, green to medium olive when dry, to 4.6 dm, not glaucous. Stems simple, 0.6-1.7(-2.3) mm wide, glabrous, margins entire, similar in color and texture to stem body. Leaf blades glabrous, bases not persistent in fibrous tufts. Inflorescences borne singly; spathes green, glabrous, keels entire; outer 12.5-36 mm, 0-16 mm longer than inner, tapering evenly towards apex, margins basally connate 3.5-9 mm; inner with keel evenly curved to straight, hyaline margins 0.4-0.6 mm wide, apex usually extending as 2 rounded, sometimes erose lobes, ending 0-1.5 mm proximal to green apex. Flowers: tepals yellow to orange, usually with brownish or occasionally purplish veins; outer tepals 7-11 mm, apex acute to rounded; filaments connate basally, glabrous; ovary similar in color to foliage. Capsules dark brown to black, slightly turbinate to ± globose, 4.5-9 mm; pedicel ascending to erect. Seeds ± hemispherical, with slight depression on flattened side, 1-1.7 mm, rugulose. 2n = 34. Flowering summer. Wet to moist meadows, stream banks, moist open areas in forests; of conservation concern; 2200--3200 m; Ariz., Calif., N.Mex. Plants of Sisyrinchium longipes that are disjunct in the San Bernadino Mountains, California, were previously identified as S. elmeri.

Plant: perennial herb; erect, to 46 cm tall; ROOTS fibrous or moderately thickened; STEMS 0.6-3.5 mm wide, simple, the margins entire, the surface glabrous Leaves: folded lengthwise in iris-like fashion but somewhat flexuous, mostly basal and distichous, the margins slightly hyaline basally; 1.2-4.4 mm wide INFLORESCENCE: an umbel with 2 spathe bracts, the lower (outer) bract enclosing the other (inner); SPATHE BRACTS with the dorsal keels entire; outer bract 12.5-36(-50) mm long, tapering evenly to the apex, the margins connate basally (2.5-)3.5-9 mm; inner bract 11-26 mm long, the hyaline margins wide, ending just below or at the apex, the base curved or tapering evenly as it emerges from the outer bract Flowers: yellow to orange and generally with brownish veins; pedicels ascending, glabrous, at anthesis generally longer than the inner bract; tepals 8-12 mm long, the outer with acute non-apiculate apices; anthers 1.8-4.3 mm long; filaments united basally; ovary glabrous Fruit: FRUITS a capsule 4.5-9 mm long, obovoid to nearly spherical, dark brown to black; SEEDS 1.1-1.7 mm long, hemispherical with a slight depression on the flattened side, the surface reticulate Misc: Wet or moist meadows, streambanks, springs, or ephemeral pools in coniferous woods; 2100-3100 m (7000-10200 ft); Jun-Aug REFERENCES: Cholewa, Anita F. and Douglass M. Henderson. 1994. Iridaceae J. Ariz. – Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 27(2), 215.