Herbs perennial, rhizomatous. Rhizome horizontal, creeping, stout, covered on upper side with fibers from old, disintegrated leaf bases. Roots emerging from lower side of rhizome, thickened, fleshy. Leaves several, all basal, tufted, grasslike, gradually narrowed into a filiform, distal part. Scape erect, simple, longer than leaves, bearing a few sterile bracts and a terminal raceme. Raceme many flowered; bracts small, membranous, apex acute to filiform acuminate. Flowers bisexual, solitary or in clusters of 2 or 3, subsessile to shortly pedicellate. Perianth narrowly funnelform; segments 6, slightly connate at base, 3-veined. Stamens 3, inserted near middle of inner perianth segments, not exserted; filaments short, flattened; anthers nearly basifixed. Ovary 3-loculed; ovules 2 per locule. Style short; stigma small. Fruit a capsule, narrowly ovoid-ellipsoid, loculicidal. Seeds flattened, narrowly winged along angles.

One species: China, Korea, Mongolia.

(Authors: Chen Xinqi (陈心启 Chen Sing-chi); Nicholas J. Turland)