Annual or perennial herb; rootstock often tuberous, fibres various; stem short, condensed; leaves few, lamina oblong or elliptic, about 13-15 x 5-8 cm, entire, base rounded, apex acute adaxially green, abaxially pale green; petiole channeled, shorter than the leaf-blade, reaching up to 10 cm long; flowers clustered on short peduncles; bracts 1-flowered, oblong-lanceolate, green; calyx short, cylindric, splitting down one side; corolla tube twice s long as the calyx, slender, segments small, lanceolate, equal, usually spreading; staminodes spreading, broad, bifid near the base, petaloid; stamen short, arcuate, anther cells separated on a broad connective, produced above into a petaloid, large crest, not spurred below; ovary 3 celled, stigma turbinate, style long filiform; capsule oblong, pericarp thin; seeds subglobose, arillate with a small lacerate aril.