Rhizomatous perennial herbs, rooting at nodes. Leaves spirally arranged, crowded, narrowly linear, acute, minutely serrulate; base expanded into scarious imbricate sheath. Inflorescence an axillary umbel on a filiform scape; pedicels subtended by imbricate, scarious, ovate, acuminate bracts. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic. Perianth segments 6, equal, free, elliptic, persistent. Stamens 6, inserted at base of perianth; filaments about as long as perianth; anthers ovate, dehiscing longitudinally, introrse. Ovary superior, ovoid, trilocular; ovules 2 or 3 per locule; placentation axile; style 1, curved, about as long as stamens; stigma subcapitate. Fruit a subglobose, loculicidal capsule, 3-valved, partly enclosed by persistent perianth. Seeds few, ovoid, smooth, black.
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