Perennial herbs, dying back each year, with corms, these with fibrous tunics. Stem largely underground. Foliage leaves usually plicate. Inflorescence a spike. Flowers zygomorphic, usually pale to dark blue to mauve, tepals united into a
perianth tube, subequal or forming two lips, the upper tepal much
enlarged. Fruit a capsule. Worldwide: c. 63 species, in southern Africa, especially the Cape; 1 in Socotra Zimbabwe: 1 taxon. |
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