A parasitic, brown, leafless, puberulous, herb like a broomrape. Rhizome thick, fleshy, yellow inside. Stem simple or slightly branched, 4–7 in. high, bearing a few obtuse scales less than 1/4 in. long, and florescent in the upper quarter, orange-purple at the base, dusky purple upwards. Flowers orange, densely crowded, nearly sessile. Bracts oblong, obtuse, shorter than the flowers. Bracteoles subulate, about 1/12 in. long. Calyx campanulate, about 1/4 in. long, dusky purple, nearly equally 5-lobed; lobes lanceolate-oblong, rather obtuse, shorter than the tube. Corolla about 1/2 in. long, longitudinally striate; tube very short, not constricted; limb 5-lobed; lobes spathulate, somewhat concave, spreading. Filaments densely bearded; anther-cells not apiculate.
