Schelhammera R.Br.

Erect, mainly glabrous herbs. Rhizome rather thick; roots fibrous. Aerial stems annual, simple or with 1-3 branches, often slightly swollen at the nodes; branches erect. Leaves cauline, alternate, flat, with many veins and usually a strong midrib, sessile or shortly petioled, lanceolate to ovate, often at least partly amplexicaul, obtuse or cuneate at the base, acute at apex. Leaves on rhizome and lower parts of aerial stems and branches scale-like. Inflorescence terminal, consisting of a sessile or peduncled umbel or of a single flower. Pedicels straight, articulated or not. Perianth segments free, equal, spreading to shallowly campanulate, with several usually inconspicuous veins. Filaments flattened, tapering from the base, attached to the base of the perianth segments; anthers basifixed, linear-oblong, extrorse. Ovary superior, sessile, obovoid, globose or oblong, often fairly deeply 3-lobed, 3-celled; ovules axile, few (c. 4-12) per locule; style filiform, with 3 deeply divided branches. Capsule somewhat fleshy.

Most records suggest a preference for rain-forest, but also recorded in scrub and on open slopes in the lowland and hills.