Plants perennial, mycotrophic, not green. Rhizomes absent. Roots horizontal, stoutly terete. Stems unbranched, very short. Leaves cauline, bractlike, white. Inflorescences solitary flowers; floral bracts imbricate. Flowers erect, neither ribbed nor winged; perianth caducous in fruit; annulus present in perianth throat immediately proximal to lobes; stamens 6, pendent, forming ring proximal to annulus; ovary 1-locular; placentation parietal; pedicel absent. Capsules cup-shaped; dehiscence irregular by breaking down of wall.

Fls regular, wingless; perianth-lobes equal or the inner the larger, the throat partly closed by an annulus; stamens 6, pendent from the annulus within the tube; fr fleshy, crowned by the perianth-tube; fleshy, achlorophyllous herbs, mostly small, with a few minute cauline lvs and 1-few fls. 25, mainly trop.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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