brown or purple (or occasionally green). Flowers are long overall. The perianth tube is relatively short () with an acute base. (Triteleia dudleyi is a similar, but less common species from high elevations in the Sierra Nevada that has a much longer tube with a rounded base.) The six free tepal lobes are long and are generally perpendicular to the tube but may range from ascending to reflexed. Inside the flower, the stamen filaments provide the primary identifying character separating Triteleia ixioides from related species, and distinguishing among the five described subspecies. Each stamen is attached to the corresponding tepal at the same height, but they alternate between short filaments (attached to the outer whorl of tepals) and long filaments (attached to the inner whorl). The filaments are dilated (broad) and flattened and each has a forked pair of apical appendages that extend above the anther attachment. The appendages on the three longer filaments are pointed and conspicuous. The anthers are long and may be colored white, cream, yellow or blue. Anther color was at one time used as a character to identify some subspecies, but is no longer regarded as a reliable guide. The ovary is longer that the stipe supporting it. Fertilized flowers form ovoid, capsular fruits that are loculicidally dehiscent (i.e. they split vertically down the center of each of the three chambers when ripe). The seeds are black and somewhat spherical with a ridge on one side. The seed surface has relatively large irregularly distributed pits and at a finer scale is granulate or granulate–reticulate (i.e. bumpy with elements of a net-like arrangement). The seed coat has a crust. Triteleia ixioides exhibits a considerable amount of polyploidy and reported chromosome numbers are 2n = 10, 14, 16, 24, 32, 40, 42, 50. Taxonomy and phylogeny Triteleia ixioides was first formally described (under the name Ornithogalum ixioides) by William Townsend Aiton in the second edition of Hortus Kewensis in 1811, based on a specimen collected by Archibald Menzies "in California". Aiton's published description was likely actually written by botanist Jonas Carlsson Dryander, working as a librarian for Joseph Banks, and so the author citation is given as "Dryand. ex W.T.Aiton". The specific epithet ixioides means "like Ixia", in reference to a slight similarity to that unrelated monocot genus from southern Africa. In common with many Triteleia species, Triteleia ixioides was the subject of substantial nomenclatural confusion during