Helmholtzia F.Muell.

Robust, stoutly rhizomatous herbs with fibrous roots. Leaves ensiform, many-nerved, glabrous. Scapes several. Inflorescence an erect, many-flowered, pyramidal panicle; bracts lanceolate, acuminate, leaf-like, becoming smaller upwards; flowers axillary in sheathing bracteoles. Perianth glabrous or (not in Australia) basally hairy, white or pink; outer tepals recurved, the margins inrolled forming a cucullate apex; inner tepals erect or spreading. Anther rigid, introrse; locules straight and contiguous; pollen grains free. Ovary ±globose, trilocular (imperfectly in H. glaberrima ), glabrous or hairy; style flexuose, becoming bi-geniculate in fruit; stigma minute, capitate. Fruit a loculicidal capsule, or indehiscent. Seeds numerous, linear-cylindrical, silky-striate.