It is native to much of western and central North America from Alaska to northern Mexico to the Great Lakes region, where it grows in many types of habitat.

It is a parasite growing attached to the roots of other plants, usually members of the Asteraceae such as Artemisia; and other genera such as Eriodictyon and Eriogonum.

This plant produces one or more stems from a bulbous root,[1] growing erect to a maximum of about 20 centimeters in height.

[1] As a parasite taking its nutrients from a host plant, it lacks chlorophyll as well as a water-storage system.

Each flower has a calyx of hairy triangular sepals and a tubular corolla 1.5–3 cm (5⁄8–1+1⁄8 in) long.