Perennial herbs with erect, leafy stem, rootstock creeping; leaves petiolate, alternate, distichous, obliquely linear-lanceolate or ensiform; inflorescence branched, sheaths membranous, spathe many flowered, subscarious; bracts scarious; flowers pedicelled; perianth tube very short, segments 6, oblong, spreading, subequal, orange, spotted with yellow or red; stamens 6, inserted at the base of perianth lobes, epigynous or adnate to tepals, exserted, filaments slender, anthers linear, basifixed; ovary 3-celled, obovoid, glabrous, ovules many, 2-seriate, styles-3, arms filiform, elongate, shorter than perianth, stigmas-3, petaloid, variously cleft, tips reniform; capsules obovoid, membranous, trigonous, loculicidal; seeds many, subglobose, fleshy within.