Echlorophyllous, small, erect, little-branched herbs with small, bract-like, erect leaves; roots not aromatic. Stems without nodal glands, terete, ribbed, unwinged. Leaves sessile, erect, up to 4 mm long, glabrous or minutely ciliate, l-nerved. Inflorescences terminal, spike-like, very dense, the axes without nodal glands, terete; bracts persistent or early caducous; bracteoles absent or (in E. pa-puana) present and persistent. Sepals 5, unequal, distinctly shorter than the petals, free or variously connate, persistent in fruit, glabrous to minutely ciliate. Petals 3, unequal, glabrous or apically papillose, asymmetric, halfway adnate to the staminal tube, the upper ones halfway connate to the lower one (keel) and about as long as this; free part of lower petal ± boat-shaped, inappendiculate at apex. Stamens 2, 3 or 5, rarely 4, filaments completely connate or partly free; anthers bisporangiate by abortion of the outer microsporangiae, sessile or on a free filamentous stalk, c. 0.2 mm long, opening by an introrse slit common to both cells or opening irregularly introrsely. Disk either semi-annular, enclosing the lower and lateral side of the ovary and accrescent during fruit-setting, or present only at adaxial (upper) side of the ovary as a lobe not accrescent in fruit. Ovary 2-locular, orbicular to elliptic and laterally slightly flattened, glabrous, each locule with a single apical epitropous ovule; style either rather long and straight and apically with a slightly 2-lobed stigma, or short and more or less bifurcate with a larger fertile upper lobe and a smaller sterile apically hollow lobe. Fruit indehiscent, largely enclosed by the sepals, broadly ellipsoid, apically rounded or faintly bilobed, with a fleshy pericarp. Seeds ± ellipsoid, glabrous, with a soft, thickened tissue at micropylar side (aril?), along the raphe, and most distinctly so at chalazal side; albumen nearly absent in ripe seeds; embryo translucent, delicate, containing oil (even in dry state).
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Herbs annual, erect, echlorophyllous, saprophytic. Roots not aromatic. Stems erect, simple or sparsely branched. Leaves sessile, scalelike. Inflorescence spicate, terminal, bracts persistent or caducous, bracteoles present or absent. Flowers very small. Sepals 5, unequal. Petals 3; keel longer than lateral petals, without appendages. Stamens 2-5; filaments united or partly free; anthers dehiscent by a slit. Disk present. Ovary compressed, 2-loculed; ovule 1 per locule, epitropous; style long and straight, or short and bifurcate toward apex. Fruit indehiscent. Seeds ellipsoid, glabrous, nearly without endosperm, with thickened tissue at micropylar end.
On humous soil between litter, in different types of rain-forests, sometimes locally abundant and together with other small saprophytes (Burmanniaceae, Triuridaceae); 0-1800 m.According to RICHARDS ( RICHARDS Trop. Rainforest 1952 ) the saprophytes (including Epirixanthes) prefer intense shade and are not able to survive even a slight drying of the forest floor.The fleshy disk at the base of the fruit might serve as a 'fruit-aril' and serve for dispersal by ants.
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