Rhizomes short, 0.5-1 cm, bearing numerous, clustered, fleshy roots; stolons absent. Stems 1-several, 1-branched, angled and puberulent distally, especially at nodes, 1-4.5 dm, bearing 1 leaf below lowest branch. Leaf blades sessile, broadly oblong-elliptic, 4-8(-8.5) × 1.5-3.5(-4) cm, puberulent on abaxial veins, margins minutely papillose, apex acute to acuminate. Flowers 1-3 per stem; peduncles 0.5-2 cm, ebracteate; tepals greenish to pale yellow, 10-25 × 2-4 mm, smooth adaxially, apex rounded; stamens 6.5-17 mm; anthers 5-12 mm; connectives 0.6-0.8 mm; ovary sessile or subsessile, sharply triangular; style 8-14 mm; stigma lobes 4-6 mm. Capsules sharply 3-winged, broadly ellipsoid, 1.5-3.7 × 1-2 cm, not beaked. Seeds 3-3.5 mm; arils crested. 2n = 14. Flowering spring--early summer. Moist to dry, open woods; 0--900 m; Ga., Md., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Va., W.Va.