Found along the Gulf and Atlantic coastal plain from Louisiana to Florida, Yellow Colicroot is a short-lived perennial in the bog asphodel family, growing 1 to 4 feet tall and 6 to 12 inches wide. Like its relatives, it forms a basal rosette of leaves and produces flowers along a spike-like stem — here in tubular yellow clusters that can appear almost any time from spring through fall, making it one of the more generous bloomers in a genus not known for showiness. It requires full sun and moist to seasonally flooded, sandy, acidic soil: the kind of wet-footed habitat that defines the savannas and pocosins of the Southeast.

Propagation is by seed or rhizome division, though the plant is famously difficult to establish in garden conditions and hard to source commercially. Zones 8 to 10 define its tolerance, and bees visit the flowers reliably. If any planting is attempted, placing groups along the edge of a bog or pond gives the best chance of success. Otherwise, as with the other Aletris species, the wild population is both the plant's greatest stronghold and its most fitting setting.