Description: Perennial herbs with bulb; bulb tunicated; roots fibrous.
Leaves annual, expanding after flowering, basal, long-petiolate; lamina with prominent midvein, primary veins looped, secondary cross veins parallel; petiole channelled above.
Inflorescence umbellate, scapose; involucral bracts 2–4, ovate. Flowers actinomorphic, pedicellate. Perianth funnel-shaped; lobes 6, fused at base, spreading. Stamens 6, inserted at base of perianth tube; lower part of filaments expanded with 2 apical lobes, ± united into a corona; anthers versatile, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, introrse. Ovary inferior, 1- or 3-locular, globose; ovules 2 per loculus; placentation parietal; style filiform; stigma small.
Fruit ± globose, rupturing irregularly; 'seeds' 1–3, globose, green.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 3 species, Australia to South-East Asia. Australia: 3 species (1 species endemic), Qld, N.S.W., W.A.
Text by G. J. Harden & N. Frischknecht
Taxon concept:
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