Herb with tuberous, elongate rootstock covered with fleshy, stout roots; leaves very variable, sessile, subsessile or petiolate, elliptic to lanceolate, membranous, plicate, glabrous; scape very short, clavate, hidden by leaf sheaths; flowers sessile, small, bright-yellow, distichous, few, small, the lowest in the raceme 2-sexual, rest all males; bracts lanceolate, membranous; perianth 6-lobed, petaloid, spreading, borne on a stipe, lobes oblong-elliptic, outer one hairy on outer face, inner ones sparsely hairy along nerves; stamens small 6, filaments very short, anthers linear, erect, dorsifixed; ovary 3-celled, ovules 2-seriate, ovoid, villous, narrowed into a long beak or stipe above supporting the perianth, style short, columnar, stigmas-3, erect, stout distinct or connate; capsule, oblong to ovoid, usually with slender beak, indehiscent septa spongy; seeds many, oblong or globose, deeply grooved, black, shining.