Flora of New Zealand Series

Stout perennials; thick rhizome or rootstock tuberous; roots numerous, fleshy, Scape stout, ± terete. Leaves all basal, linear, ± fleshy to leathery, erect, arching or spreading, deciduous or evergreen. Flowers many, pedicellate, blue or white, ± actinomorphic, in terminal umbels; spathe-valves 2, deciduous; perianth-segments ± unequal, connate, spreading in upper half. Capsule triquetrous, loculicidal. Seeds many, black, flat, shining, winged. Spp. c. 10, of S. Africa. Adventive sp. 1.