Long-lived perennial, suffrutescent from a woody branching base, sometimes sprouting shoots from thick, lateral roots; stems up to 25 cm tall, puberulent or glabrescent at the base and glabrous for at least the upper two-thirds; leaves linear to linear-lanceolate, appressed, 3-10 mm long; lower leaves mucronate and sometimes sparsely puberulent; upper leaves acuminate-aristate, serrulate, and glabrous; stipular glands dark and present throughout; sepals lanceolate, acute-aristate, margins serrulate with gland-tipped teeth, glabrous, deciduous in fruit, 4.5-7 mm long; petals broadly obovate, 10-13 mm long, 6-7 mm wide, orange or salmon with a broad interior dark orange or reddish band across the lower half above a short yellow band in the lowest 1-2 mm giving the corolla a basal yellow 'eye' around the ovary; stamens 5.5-7 mm long; anthers yellow, 1.2-1.6 mm long; styles 7-9 mm long, united to just below the 5 dark stigmas; capsules oval, straw-colored, 3.7-4 mm long, dehiscing into five 2-seeded segments; seeds reddish brown, 2.4-2.7 mm long, 0.9-1.1 mm wide. Flowers late April to early August.