Home
Bulbous perennials. Leaves all basal, linear, flat or grooved, ± fleshy. Flowers small, flask-shaped, oblong to globose, constricted at mouth, ± crowded in stiff, erect racemes, apical flowers often smaller and sterile; lobes very short, tooth-like, often reflexed; pedicels short; bracts minute or 0. Capsule loculicidal, triquetrous. Seeds ± globose, few, glossy, black, often wrinkled. Spp. c. 60, of Europe, W. Asia and N. Africa. Adventive sp. 1.
Perianth tubular or urceolate, shortly 6-toothed; stamens 6, inserted on the perianth-tube, included; stigma 1; fr a loculicidal capsule, distinctly 3-angled or almost winged; seeds angular; perennial herbs from a coated bulb, the linear lvs basal, the short erect scape bearing a dense raceme in the spring. 60, Europe, Medit. reg., w. Asia.
