Description: Perennial herbs with bulb.
Leaves perennial, basal, linear to narrow-elliptic.
Inflorescence umbellate or capitate, scapose; spathe 2-valved. Flowers ± actinomorphic, sessile or pedicellate. Tepals 6, fused below into a tube. Stamens 6; filaments long, joined at base by a membranous corona; anthers linear, versatile, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, introrse. Ovary inferior, 3-locular; ovules 2 per loculus; placentation basal; style filiform; stigma capitate, small.
Fruit a capsule; seeds few, green.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 50 species, North & South America & West Indies. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by G. J. Harden & N. Frischknecht
Taxon concept:
|
