Description: Rhizomatous perennial herbs with branching stems, rooting at nodes, woody at base.
Leaves dense, crowded along stems, base expanded into scarious imbricate sheath.
Inflorescences axillary, condensed, bracteate umbel-like racemes, on filiform scapes; pedicels subtended by imbricate, scarious bracts. Tepals free, equal, elliptic, 3-veined, not twisting after flowering, persistent, ovate, white. Stamens 6, inserted at base of perianth; filaments about as long as perianth; filaments filiform; anthers introrse, basifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Ovules 2 or 3 per loculus; style curved, about as long as stamens; stigma subcapitate.
Fruit a capsule, partly enclosed by persistent perianth; seeds ovoid, smooth, black.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 1 species, endemic Australia. Australia: 1 species, endemic to NSW.
Formerly included in Anthericaceae but now considered to be most closely related to Borya (not in NSW).
Text by S. McCune & D. W. Hardin (1993); edited KL Wilson (Jume 2013)
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 4 (1993)
| One species in NSW: Alania cunninghamii |
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