Homalomena Schott

Herbs, evergreen, aromatic. Stem creeping, erect or ascending. Leaves long petiolate; petiole sheathing up to halfway, usually longer than leaf blade, frequently distinctly articulate ca. halfway along; leaf blade oblong, elliptic, lanceolate, deltoid, or sagittate, thinly to rather stiffly leathery, base usually cordate, apex acuminate usually with tubular tip; primary veins all diverging from midrib, with rather few basal, secondary veins striate, tertiary veins often numerous and very much thinner, all veins straight over most of their length, only near apex arcing into a submarginal vein. Inflorescences usually several together. Spathe persistent, often constricted. Spadix elongate; stipe very short or absent; female flowers usually each with an associated staminode; distal male zone usually separated from female zone by a ring of staminodes, very rarely a naked or near naked interstice; flowers unisexual, naked; female flowers: ovary incompletely 2-5-loculed with parietal and axile (very rarely basal) placentation, ovules numerous, semianatropous with long, slender funicle, style minute, stigma sessile or terminating a minute style, disciform or lobed; sterile flowers sometimes present at base of male axis of spadix; male flowers (fertile) consisting of 2-6 stamens, thecae extrorsely dehiscent by a slit, connective broad or narrow. Berry few or many seeded. Seeds on a long funicle, longitudinally striate, ovoid-lageniform.