Description: Rhizomatous perennial herbs; roots fibrous.
Leaves chiefly basal, usually few and withering early, lanceolate or linear, or reduced to scales along stems.
Inflorescence umbellate; axis branched, bracteate; flowers pedicellate. Tepals free, spirally twisted after flowering, later falling, yellow; outer tepals 3- or rarely 5–7-veined. Stamens 6, attached to base of perianth; filaments filiform, with a tuft of narrow clavate hairs below anther; anthers introrse, dorsifixed, dehiscing by slits. Ovules few per loculus; style filiform; stigma simple, papillate.
Fruit a schizocarp; mericarps 1–3, sometimes umbonate; seeds 1 per mericarp, black.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 7 species, Australia & New Guinea. Australia: 7 species (6 species endemic), Qld, N.S.W., Vic., S.A., W.A.
Text by S. McCune & D. W. Hardin
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the genus Tricoryne | |
| 1 | Flowering axis flattened or winged | Tricoryne anceps |
| 1* | Flowering axis not flattened or winged | 2 |
| 2 | Soft herbs; flowering axis with few branches; anthers 1–1.3 mm long; coastal districts | Tricoryne simplex |
| 2* | Wiry virgate herbs; flowering axis much-branched; anthers less than 1 mm long; widespread | Tricoryne elatior |
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