Tufted herbaceous perennial; roots fibrous, sometimes with fusiform tubers. Aerial stems condensed, leafy. Leaves linear to filiform; margins scariously winged at base, the wings often fused distally as ligule. Flowers clustered, terminal on simple or few-branched axis; pedicels bracteate; inner bracts fimbriate. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic. Perianth persistent, not twisting; segments 6, ±free, ±elliptic, very concave, 1-nerved, chartaceous. Stamens 3; anther locules 2, free except for abbreviated connective, dehiscing by slits, latrorse, introrse or extrorse; staminodes absent or 3. Ovary superior, 3-locular; ovules absent or to 4 per locule, placentation axile; style filiform; stigma minute. Fruit a loculicidal capsule, ±3-lobed, shorter than perianth. Seeds irregularly angular to semi-ellipsoidal, estrophiolate, brown to black, dull.
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