Perennial rosetted herbs with annual leaves and flowers. Roots fibrous or tuberous; tubers oblong-fusiform. Leaves linear or filiform, radical; lamina ±fleshy above scarious sheath; tip hooded; sheath-fibres ±persistent. Inflorescence scapose, corymbose-or conical-paniculate, with 1 to many flowers. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, equalling or exceeding bracteate spreading pedicels. Perianth segments 6, petaloid, subequal, 3-5-nerved, spirally twisting, persistent. Stamens 6; filaments slender, glabrous; anthers dehiscing introrsely by longitudinal slits. Ovary superior, ±oblong, 3-locular; ovules 4-18 per locule; style 1, filiform, slightly expanded upwards, ±truncate; stigma terminal, minutely papillose. Fruit a membranous capsule, trilobed. Seed ±discoid, biconvex; testa smooth, shining, black; strophiole absent.
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