Perennial herbs with rhizomes, bulbs or corms. Inflorescence either
(1) composed of rhipidia enclosed in leafy to dry bracts (spathes)
or (2) consisting of a spike or (3) with flowers solitary.
Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic or zygomorphic, with 2
whorls of petaloid tepals which are usually showy and may be
free or, more usually, partly united into a perianth tube.
Stamens 3. Ovary inferior, 3-locular with axile
placentation. Style filiform, usually 3-branched; style branches
filiform or broadened, sometimes divided at the apex. Fruit a
capsule. Seeds sometimes winged. Worldwide: 82 genera and 1700 species, cosmopolitan, but especially in South Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and Central and South America. |
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