Description: Small, bulbous perennial herbs with annual leaves and flowers.
Leaves basal, linear, folded longitudinally.
Flowering stem erect, simple or branched, with reduced sheathing leaves; inflorescence few-flowered; spathe bracts herbaceous, with dry, brown, acute apices, inner bract larger than outer one. Flowers actinomorphic. Perianth blue to violet; tepals free; outer tepals clawed, spreading, far exceeding inner ones. Stamens monadelphous. Style erect, terete, 3-branched; branches appressed to anthers, channelled, 2-fid near apices; stigmas 6.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 6 species, North & South America. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by T. A. James & E. A. Brown
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Herbertia lahue |
|
