Stems coarse, flexuous, 5-10 dm. Leaves not recurved. Flowers: petals shorter than sepals; glands very deeply depressed, more so than species. Flowering late spring--mid summer. Dry, rocky slopes, chaparral, often on serpentine; 0--1300 m; Calif. Calochortus clavatus var. avius is found in the northern Sierra Nevada foothills in Eldorado and Amador counties.