Perennial, 3-7 dm; lvs sessile, lanceolate to lance-ovate or narrowly deltoid, 5-11 cm, acute to slenderly acuminate, the base obtuse to rounded or truncate; cyme usually solitary, racemiform, peduncled, few-fld, elongating during anthesis; sep linear-attenuate; cor erect, 3-6 cm, scarlet outside, yellow inside; fr 5-8 mm; 2n=48. Moist woods and thickets; N.C. to s. Ind., s. Mo., and Okla., s. to Fla. and Tex. May, June. Contains a poisonous alkaloid.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
