Description: Perennial herbs with erect or climbing annual stems arising from thick rhizomes; roots fibrous.
Leaves alternate, sessile extended into an apical tendril; veins many, longitudinal.
Flowers solitary in leaf axils, pedicellate, bisexual. Tepals spreading to reflexed, equal, free, articulated at base. Nectaries present. Stamens 6, free; filaments filiform; anthers dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, extrorse.
Fruit a septicidal capsule; seeds numerous, outer layer fleshy, red.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 5 species, Africa & Asia. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by G. J. Harden
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Gloriosa superba |
|
