Herbs, perennial, scapose, forming dome-shaped clumps, from rhizomes; rhizomes short, branching, sometimes stoloniferous, leaf scars prominent; roots fleshy. Leaves numerous, basal, spiral, distinctly petiolate; petiole sulcate, terete, sometimes ridged; blade light to dark green, often variegated, cordate to orbiculate to lanceolate, smooth to puckered, margins entire, slightly undulate [flat or crisped]; veins campylodromous, conspicuous, usually sunken adaxially, prominent abaxially. Scape usually surpassing leaves. Inflorescences simple, terminal, racemose, usually subsecund, elongate, subtended proximally by 1 or more sterile bracts, each flower usually bracteate. Flowers: perianth tubular to campanulate or urceolate-cylindric [funnelform]; tepals 6, similar, connate proximally into wide-throated tube, white, bluish purple, or purplish violet with darker markings or lines, lobes spreading, sometimes recurved, longer than perianth tube; stamens 6, inserted at base of perianth tube or ovary apex, exceeding tepals; filaments declinate; anthers dorsifixed in connective pits, dehiscence introrse; ovary superior, sessile, 3-locular, oblong, septal nectaries present; style filiform, exceeding stamens; stigma minute, capitate or 3-lobed; pedicel short. Fruits capsular, pendent at maturity, angled, elongate or triangular, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds numerous, black, flattened, winged. x = 30.
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Herbs perennial, rhizomatous. Rhizome horizontal, large, sometimes with stolons. Leaves numerous, basal, spiral, long petiolate. Scape terminal, usually with a few bractlike cauline leaves. Inflorescence a terminal raceme, few to many flowered; bracts green or white. Flowers bisexual, solitary, rarely in clusters of 2 or 3; pedicel short. Perianth white to blue or lavender, tubular-campanulate or nearly funnelform; segments 6, connate. Stamens 6, free or rarely adnate to perianth tube near base; filaments filiform; anthers dorsifixed, introrse, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary 3-loculed; ovules many per locule. Style filiform; stigma capitate, small. Fruit a loculicidal capsule. Seeds many, black.
Perianth funnelform, the tep united at base into a long tube, erect or spreading above; stamens free from the perianth in most spp.; anthers versatile; ovules numerous; style 1; stigma undivided; perennial herbs from a cluster of thick roots, producing several large, strongly ribbed, plantain-like basal lvs and an erect scape or scape-like stem bearing a terminal bracteate raceme of showy, white to blue or purple fls in summer. (Funkia) 10, China, Japan.
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