It is an herbaceous perennial native to the desert, scrublands, and woodlands of western North America.

[3] This Indian paintbrush is under half a meter in height and has bristly gray-green to purple-red herbage.

It stands in a clump of erect stems, each topped with an inflorescence of somewhat tubular yellow green flowers.

The flowers are encased in bright red to orange-red bracts,[4] sometimes tinted with purple, and usually fuzzy with a thin coat of white hairs.

[6] The brightly colored bracts are used to attach pollinators like hummingbirds and butterflies that would otherwise ignore the plant's small yellow green flowers.