Terrestrial, acaulescent herbs, rarely with a short caudex; petioles equitant, usually long and slender, mostly geniculate near the apex and terete above the node, commonly vaginate to or above the middle; blades mostly oblong to ovate or lanceolate and cuspidate-acuminate, drying rather thin, the costa stout, the primary and secondary lateral nerves subparallel, approximate, ascending chiefly at a narrow angle, not united into a collective nerve; peduncles equaling or longer than the leaves, the spathe cuspidate, decurrent upon the peduncle, membranaceous, convolute in bud, explanate in anthesis, white or whitish; spadix sessile or stipitate, cylindric, erect, shorter than the spathe, densely many-flowered, flowering from the base upward; flowers perfect, perigoniate, typically 3-parted, sometimes 2-to 4-parted; sepals fornicate at the apex and subtruncate, coherent or united to form a truncate cup; stamens as many as the sepals and opposite them, the short fila-ments dilated and thickened at the apex, gibbous posteriorly, abruptly narrowed at the apex into the connective; anthers ovoid, the cells oblong, exceeding the connective, the cells subopposite, dehiscent by a longitudinal slit that scarcely extends to the base; ovary oblong, commonly 3-celled, the cells 2-to 8-ovulate, the ovules anatropous, attached by short funicles; style continuous with the ovary, conically elongate, and projecting beyond the perianth, or almost none; stigma 3-or 4-lobate, sessile; fruit baccate, rounded or conic at the apex, 3-celled, the cells 1-to 8-seeded; seeds oblong, slightly curved, somewhat reniform, pale yellowish, the testa sparsely striate-verrucose; endosperm abundant.
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