Plants 3-8 dm, crisp-pubescent, glabrate or glabrous with age. Stems sparingly branched. Leaves 4-12 × 2-5 cm; blade ovate to oblong-lanceolate, subcordate to oblique basally, abaxial surface and margins moderately pubescent, hairs scattered, flattened, apex acute to short-acuminate, with 7-9 prominent veins. Flowers 1-2(-3); perianth narrowly campanulate; tepals creamy to greenish white, narrowly oblanceolate, 8-15 mm; stamens mostly exserted; filaments filiform, 10-15 mm; anthers 3-4(-5) mm; ovary broadly ovoid to obovoid, becoming 3-lobed and obpyriform after anthesis, finely papillose, ovules 2-6 per locule, horizontal; style 0.9-1.2 cm, glabrous or pubescent; stigma unlobed or 3-lobed. Berries reddish orange to bright red, 6-12(-18)-seeded, depressed-globose, 12-18 mm, strongly papillose. Seeds 4-5 mm. 2n = 22. Flowering late spring--summer. Rich, shady deciduous forests, aspen groves to open coniferous forests; 300--2500 m; Alta., B.C., Man., Ont., Sask.; Ariz., Colo., Idaho, Mich., Minn., Mont., Nebr., N.Mex., N.Dak., Oreg., S.Dak., Utah, Wash., Wyo. The recently discovered populations of Prosartes trachycarpa in Isle Royale National Park, Michigan (E. J. Judziewicz et al. 1997), are noteworthy disjunctions for this otherwise western species.