Rhizomes creeping. Basal leaves 1 or more; cauline leaves absent. Inflorescences borne terminally on leafy shoots or on separate, leafless shoots arising directly from rhizomes, spikelike, ellipsoid or spindle-shaped to subcylindric, usually laterally compressed; bracts distichous, usually herbaceous. Flower pairs 1--5 per bract. Sepals less than 1/2 as long as corolla tube, usually much shorter, membranous. Corolla proximally ± solid, distally hollow; lobes 3, oblong, subequal. Outer staminodes 2, obovate; callose staminode wholly callose, not petaloid at apex. Ovary often 2-loculed by abortion. Style cylindric, curved after tripping; stigma enlarged, blunted. Fruit ellipsoid, dehiscent. Seeds usually 2; aril reflexed, 2-lobed.

Ten to sixteen species: tropical Asia; one species (endemic) in China.