Aletris L.

Herbs perennial. Indumentum (if present) usually glandular. Roots usually fibrous, sometimes thickened and fleshy, or a mixture of both. Rhizome short, rarely cormlike. Leaves basal, tufted, grasslike, lanceolate to linear, with a conspicuous midvein. Scape simple, erect, usually with a few small, bractlike leaves. Inflorescence a terminal raceme, densely capitate or shortly cylindric to laxly elongate, sometimes viscid; rachis pubescent, puberulent, or glabrous. Flowers bisexual, small, distinctly pedicellate or subsessile. Pedicel bearing a bract and bracteole toward either base or apex, pubescent, puberulent, or glabrous; bracteole similar to bract but smaller. Perianth 6-lobed distally, pubescent, puberulent, or glabrous; tube proximally adnate to ovary; lobes erect, spreading, recurved, or revolute. Stamens 6; filaments short; anthers basifixed. Ovary semi-inferior, 3-loculed; ovules many per locule. Style simple, sometimes indistinct; stigma obscurely 3-lobed. Fruit a loculicidal capsule enveloped by persistent perianth, terminating in persistent style and stigma. Seeds numerous, brown, fusiform, to 1.5 mm.

Elfin forest and mossy mountain forest, but mostly in open, sometimes damp situations in sedge-or grasslands, crevices of rocks, and mountain heaths, locally often common, between (1000-)1600 and 3250 m.