Woody herbs with bamboo-like shoots. Shoots erect or supported by other plants, simple below and clothed with sheathing coriaceous cataphylls, branched and leafy above. Leaves petiolate, distichous; petioles sheathing below, jointed shortly above the top of the sheath, terete and calloused above the joint, joining the under surface of the midrib without interruption; leaf-blades asymmetric, antitropic. Inflorescence terminal, simple or sometimes branched at the base, spike-like with a jointed rhachis and a two-flowered cymule at each distichous node, subtended by a sheathing bract enclosing the cymule and the part of the inflorescence above it; bract deciduous at the time of flowering; prophylls and mesophylls absent. Cymule shortly pedunculate, with the flowers side by side, each subtended by a small fleshy bracteole. Outer staminodes 2, petaloid; the hooded staminode with a spur-like appendage. Ovary 3-locular, completely clothed by contiguous papillæ. Capsule dehiscent, muricate, 1–3-seeded. Seed smooth, with a basal aril.
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