Perennial herbs from a short swollen rhizome or corm. Roots often tuberous. Leafy shoots often produced after flowering; lamina narrowly to broadly elliptic, glabrous; ligule scarious or absent; sheaths sulcate when dry, sometimes forming a pseudostem. Inflorescences racemose, 2-20-flowered, separate from the leafy shoot, often precocious, on a peduncle which is either elongated, or very short and concealed among the basal bracts and old leaf-sheaths. Peduncle with several bracts at the base, and pedicellate flowers each subtended by a single floral bract; bracteoles absent. Calyx tubular or turbinate, 3-lobed at the apex, each lobe often with a subterminal subulate projection. Corolla with a basal tube and 3 free subequal petals. Androecium fused basally with the corolla-tube, composed of a 3-lobed labellum of which the central lobe is generally deeply divided, and a single stamen with basal anthers and a long terminal lobe. Ovary subspherical, sometimes trigonous; style filiform; stigma cup-shaped or 2-lipped, glabrous; epigynous glands very short. Fruit often ± subterranean except in those species with long-pedunculate inflorescences, generally poorly known. Mature seeds unknown.
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