Plants 50-90 cm. Roots 7-12, tuberous, fasciculate, large, 12 × 1 cm, fleshy. Stems with 6-9 bladeless cauline sheaths, green. Leaves present at anthesis, 3-4, ascending stem, dark green, linear-oblanceolate, 10-20 × 1.5-3 cm, passing into orange bracts with green stripes. Inflorescences congested, 30-40-flowered spikes, 4-17 cm, minutely papillose; floral bracts red, lanceolate, 3.5-8 mm. Flowers yellow-orange to scarlet, tubular; perianth apices strongly recurved; ovaries red, stout, 10 × 4 mm, pubescent; sepals sparingly pubescent; dorsal sepal recurved, vermilion, lanceolate, 15-20 × 3-4 mm; lateral sepals linear-lanceolate, 15-22 × 2-3.5 mm, apex acute; petals yellow with vermilion apex, linear, falcate, 15-20 × 2-2.5 mm; lip yellow with vermilion apex, lanceolate, concave proximal to middle, 15-20 × 3-5 mm; column 9 mm, thick, papillose; rostellum flat, slender, 2-3 mm; anther abaxial. Flowering Jul--Oct. Rocky mountain slopes, grassy hills and canyon meadows, often in limestone; 1800 m; Tex.; Mexico; Central America (Guatemala).