Plant with erect (rarely prostrate), eventually branched, aerial stem, up to 50 cm. long, usually ± 2.5 cm. thick, with circular leaf-scars and stiff fibres from old leaf-bases.. Roots ± spongy without tubers.. Leaves distichous or nearly so, grass-like, born at the apices of the branches, 5–50 cm. long, 1–1.5 cm. wide.. Peduncles several in the leaf-axils, 5–40 cm. long.. Inflorescence a simple raceme (rarely with some basal branches), 6–20 cm. long; rhachis slightly papillose to pubescent; floral bracts short, up to 2–5 mm. long, boat-shaped, with swollen glandular tissue at the base, extruding a sweet, sticky substance.. Pedicels articulated below the middle, 3–6 mm., always solitary at the nodes.. Flowers open, white, star-shaped; tepals with a greenish, rarely brownish, median stripe, up to 15 mm. long and 5 mm. wide, 3-veined.. Stamens declinate, often arranged in a 5 + 1 arrangement, slightly shorter than the tepals; filaments filiform, ± 4 mm. long, half the length of the anthers.. Style declinate.. Capsule rounded-deltate in cross-section, with slight transverse ridges, ± 10 mm. long and 8 mm. wide.. Seeds irregularly folded to saucer-shaped, 1.5–2 mm. in diameter.. Fig. 8.
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