Herbs, achlorophyllous, heterotrophic. Stems absent. Leaves absent. Inflorescences racemes, erect at emergence from soil, axis fleshy and fibrous, persistent after seed dispersal, pink to reddish or brownish, 0.5-1.5 cm diam. proximal to proximalmost flower. Pedicels decurved, somewhat longer in fruit; bracteoles absent. Flowers radially symmetric, nodding; sepals 5, distinct, lanceolate-ovate; petals 5, connate, cream to yellowish or white, without basal tubercles, (surfaces glabrous), corolla urceolate; intrastaminal nectary disc present; stamens 10, included; filaments broader proximally than distally, glabrous; anthers depressed-ovoid to ovoid, with awns, without tubules, dehiscent by 2 oval slits; pistil 5-carpellate; ovary 5-locular; placentation axile; style straight, slender; stigma capitate, without subtending ring of hairs. Fruits capsular, pendulous, dehiscence acropetally loculicidal, no cobwebby tissue exposed by splitting valves at dehiscence. Seeds 100+, ovoid, with broad, rounded, membranous wing attached at 1 end. x = 8.
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Cor gamopetalous, urceolate, 5-lobed, persistent; stamens 10; filaments flattened, elongate; anthers thick-triangular, somewhat inflexed but not strongly inverted, each pollen-sac opening by a large lateral slit and with a retrorse, filiform appendage at the morphological base; ovary 5-locular; style columnar, short; stigma fleshy, capitate, shallowly 5-lobed; capsule depressed-globose, deeply umbilicate, loculicidal, opening from the morphological base toward the distal end; seeds with a broad terminal wing; pink to reddish or purplish (or eventually brownish) plants with small scale-lvs and long racemes of nodding fls and frs. Monospecific.
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