Rhizomes elongate, slender, 10-15 cm, bearing scattered, fibrous roots; stolons present. Stem 1, 1-branched, angled distally, 1-4.5 dm, nodes glabrous, bearing 1-2 leaves below lowest branch. Leaf blades sessile, narrowly to broadly elliptic, 4-6.5(-8) × (1.3-)1.6-2.8(-4) cm, glabrous abaxially, margins minutely denticulate, apex acute to acuminate. Flowers 1 per stem; peduncles 0.6-1.6 cm, ebracteate; tepals pale straw-yellow, 13-25 × 2-4.5 mm, smooth abaxially, apex rounded to acute; stamens 8-15 mm; anthers 5-12 mm; connectives 0.3-0.5 mm; ovary stipitate, sharply triangular, flowering stipe 0.8-1.2 mm; style 10-15 mm; stigma lobes 1-2 mm. Capsules sharply 3-winged, stipitate, ellipsoid, 2-3 × 1-1.6 cm, not beaked; fruiting stipe 2-5 mm. Seeds 3-5 mm; arils crested. 2n = 14. Flowering spring--early summer. Moist hardwood coves, alluvial bottomlands, thickets and xeric woods northwards; 0--1000 m; Man., N.B., N.S., Ont., Que.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.