Giraldiella Dammer (1905), not Müller (Halle) (1898); Huolirion F. T. Wang & T. Tang.

Herbs perennial, small, bulbiferous. Bulbs usually ovoid, covered with a tunic; tunic generally with a collar of persistent leaf bases, apex splitting longitudinally. Stem simple. Leaves usually filiform; basal leaves 1 to several, rather long. Inflorescence terminal, 1--4-flowered. Flowers bisexual. Tepals 6, free, white or yellow, sometimes mottled with purple, usually with a nectary, hairs, or lamellae near base adaxially. Stamens 6, inserted at base of tepals; filaments erect, sometimes hairy; anthers basifixed. Ovary 3-loculed; ovules numerous per locule. Style rather long; stigma scarcely or slightly 3-lobed. Fruit a capsule, distally loculicidal. Seeds numerous, deltoid to narrowly ovate-linear, sometimes winged at 1 end.

About 20 species: temperate regions of the N hemisphere; eight species (two endemic) in China.

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