Description: Perennial herbs, cormous; roots filamentous, fleshy-fibrous or tuberous.
Leaves clustered, lamina flat or angled, sheaths papery.
Inflorescences 1–8, 1–9-flowered, in corymbose bracteolate racemes or panicles, or flowers solitary. Tepals 4–6, ± free, elliptic to narrow-ovate, glabrous inside, glabrous or hairy outside, yellow to yellow-green. Stamens 4–6, sometimes unequal in length. Ovary 2- or 3-locular; ovules numerous; style 2- or 3-lobed.
Fruit a dry capsule, dehiscing by transverse rupture; seeds rostrate or not, sculptured, shiny or dull.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 150 species, America, Africa, eastern Asia & Australia. Australia: 10 species (endemic), all States.
Text by P. G. Richards
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Plants more or less pubescent | 2 |
| Plants glabrous | 4 |
| 2 | Seeds shiny; flowers 1–3 per peduncle; roots medial on corm | 3 |
| Seeds dull; flowers 3–9 (usually 4 or 5) per peduncle; roots basal on corm
Back to 1 | Hypoxis pratensis |
| 3 | Leaves to 2 mm wide; tepals 4–6 times as long as broad | Hypoxis exilis |
| Leaves to 4 mm wide; tepals 2–5 times as long as broad
Back to 2 | Hypoxis hygrometrica |
| 4 | Bracteoles 2 per axis, not sheathing, with only 1 vein or no veins present | Hypoxis glabella |
| Bracteoles 1 per axis, sheathing, with more than 1 vein present
Back to 1 | Hypoxis vaginata |
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