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Herbs , perennial, deciduous, rhizomatous, without aerial stems. Leaves alternate (sometimes appearing opposite because of crowding), 2-ranked; stipules absent; petiolate foliage leaves and sessile, triangular scale-leaves both present. Leaf blade membranous or leathery, pubescent at least abaxially and on margins. Inflorescences terminal on rhizome, flowers solitary; bracts absent. Flowers: sepals distinct, usually mixture of white, green, tan, red, or purple, proximally touching valvately and forming well-defined false tube, externally usually villous, inner surface strigose, smooth or with weak longitudinal ribs, never with network of low ridges; vestigial petals present or absent; stamens 12, distinct; filaments longer than pollen sacs; terminal appendage of anther well developed; ovary inferior, 6-locular; styles connate in column. Capsule fleshy, dehiscence irregular. Seeds ovoid, not winged, with fleshy appendage. x = 13.
Cal regular, tubular below, deeply 3-lobed, hairy outside; pet none or vestigial; stamens 12, with well developed filament, closely appressed to the styles; connective prolonged as a subulate tip; ovary inferior, 6-locular; styles coherent in a column, expanded at the tip into a 6-lobed stigma; fr capsular, opening irregularly; seeds large, ovoid, wrinkled, carunculate; herbs, the elongate rhizome producing annually a pair of petiolate, broad, membranous, hairy lvs, these deciduous at the end of the season; fls solitary, red-brown, short-peduncled, arising between the pair of lvs. 90, N. Hemisphere.
