Apteria Nutt.

Small erect saprophytic annual herbs; roots short and thin; stem simple or branched, 1-or sparsely-flowered; leaves small, sessile, ovate or lanceolate, scale-like; flowers rather large, often inclined or nodding; perianth campanulate or hypocraterimorphous, lobes 6, the outer ovate, the inner narrower than the outer but of the same length, linear-lanceolate, tubular part more than 3 times the length of the lobes; stamens inserted in sacks in the perianth tube below the inner perianth lobes; filaments short, thick, the base inserted in the sacks of the perianth, bearing at the external side a large, 2-lobed wing, the lobes rounded at the apex; filaments at the top forked into the broad connective; thecae bursting transversely; ovary ovoid, slightly narrowed at the top into the filiform style, style reaching the insertion of the stamens and there dividing into three short branches, each bearing a dish-shaped stigma, often beset with germinating pollen-grains; capsule 3-valved, dehiscing between the placentas, crowned by the wholly persistent, rolled perianth; seeds numerous, minute, oblong to ovoid or ellipsoid, sometimes slightly curved, with a loose reticulate testa.