Description: Glabrous perennial herbs with stout, usually branching rhizomes often forming dense mats in cold swamps (snowbeds).
Leaves spirally arranged, forming basal rosettes, simple, ±cordate to hastate at base, usually with 2 wing-like appendages or lobes lying almost against upper surface of blade.
Flowers actinomorphic, bisexual, scapose. Perianth of 5 or more petaloid tepals, narrow in most species, not spurred, white, magenta-pink or pale yellow. Nectaries absent. Stamens usually not more than 25. Carpels usually 2–18. Ovules numerous.
Fruiting follicles several to many, radiating in a head, free, shortly beaked; seeds several.
Distribution and occurrence: A genus of c. 12 species from the Andes of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile to the Magellanic Region and the Falkland Islands, New Zealand and Australia. Two endemic species in Australia. Restricted to high elevations, except in subantarctic regions where also at low altitudes.
Text by Flora of Australia volume 2 (2007)
Taxon concept: Flora of Australia volume 2 (2007)
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