Herbs glabrous or strigillose proximally, sometimes also glandular puberulent, usually glabrous distally, rarely very sparsely strigillose or glandular puberulent. Stems 6–55 cm. Leaves: blade lateral lobes usually well developed, terminal lobe narrowly ovate, to 6 × 3.5 cm, margins irregularly sinuate-dentate. Flowers opening at sunset; buds with apical free tips less than 1 mm; floral tube orange-brown inside, 3–5.5 mm; petals usually white, very rarely pale yellow, sometimes purple-dotted near base, often fading purple, 3.5–8 mm. 2n = 14.

Flowering Mar–May. Alluvial slopes and flats, with Ambrosia dumosa and Larrea; 800–1700 m; Calif.

Subspecies claviformis is known from western Inyo, eastern Kern, northern Los Angeles, western San Bernardino, and northern Riverside counties, almost entirely in the Mojave Desert. It intergrades widely and gradually with subspp. aurantiaca and funerea, and hybridizes with Chylismia brevipes subsp. brevipes.