Rhizomatous, perennial, subacaulescent herbs; leaves mostly basal, the flower-ing stem bearing relatively few, 2-ranked; inflorescence racemose, subspiciform, simple or infrequently branched, solitary or clustered; bracts persistent, usually relatively distant and not closely imbricated at anthesis, membranaceous or chartaccous, foliaceous or yellow, subtending clusters of rather small and in-conspicuous bracteolate flowers; flowers perfect, very asymmetric, epigynous; sepals 3, more or less connate at the base, persistent, the lobes essentially equal; corolla lobes 3, unequal, shortly connate at the base; fertile stamen 1, petaloid, united at the base with 4 more or less petaloid staminodia, the outer 2 exceeding the corolla lobes; ovary inferior, 1-celled; fruit a loculicidally dehiscent 1-seeded capsule.
Home