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Herbs perennial. Rhizomes absent. Stems decumbent, ascending, or erect. Leaves distichous or spirally arranged. Cincinni pseudoterminal or lateral, solitary, fascicled, or forming a panicle, sessile; involucral bracts mostly spathelike; bracts filiform. Flowers actinomorphic. Sepals free or connate at base, boat-shaped. Petals free or with claws fused at base, white or pink, ovate. Stamens 6, all fertile, subequal or antepetalous 3 shorter; filaments glabrous or bearded; anther locules ellipsoid or oblong, longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary 3-loculed; ovules 2 per locule. Capsule 3-valved, ovoid. Seeds (1 or)2 per valve, subpyramidal, rugose reticulate; hilum linear, minute.
Sep 3, herbaceous, green or anthocyanic; pet 3, all alike, obovate to elliptic, blue or pink (white); stamens 6; filaments usually villous; ovary 3-locular, with 1–2 ovules per locule; style slender; stigma capitate; fr loculicidal; perennial herbs, usually somewhat succulent, with elongate, linear to lanceolate lvs dilated into conspicuous basal sheaths, the umbel-like cymes of several to many handsome fls subtended by elongate foliaceous bracts (except for the last sp.). Except for T. virginiana, our spp. bloom in summer and early fall. 50, New World.
Small, essentially prostrate subsucculent herbs (in Panama), the stem creeping and ascending at the tips, rooting at the nodes. Leaves alternate, sheathing at the base. Inflorescences subterminal, also lateral at the upper nodes, short-or long-pedunculate, bearing an umbelliform cluster of few to several flowers subtended by 2 conspicuous foliaceous bracts. Sepals 3, free and essentially equal. Petals 3, free and essentially equal. Stamens 6, all fertile and equal. Pistil 3-celled.
Perennial herbs. Stems erect or prostrate, mucilaginous, simple or diffusely branched, leafy. Flowers solitary or few to many, pedicellate, in axillary and terminal, simple or umbellate cymes, with 1-3 leaf-like bracts. Sepals free, green or coloured. Petals free, blue, red or white. Stamens 6, all fertile. Ovules 2. Capsule 3-locular, 6-seeded. Spp. c. 60, of tropical and N. America. Adventive sp. 1.
