Succulent perennials or (rarely) annuals, with bulbs, corms, rhizomes or tubers and often with separate fertile and sterile shoots. Inflorescences composed of cymes, each cyme subtended by a spathe, consisting of 2-ranked sessile or subsessile flowers and usually conspicuous herbaceous bracteoles. Flowers actinomorphic, bisexual. Calyx tubular below. Corolla with a short tube, 3 lobes blue, purple or pink. Stamens 6, equal, all fertile. Ovary 3-locular. Capsule narrowly ovoid. Worldwide: 50 species, in the Old World tropics Zimbabwe: 7 taxa. Insects associated with this genus:
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Species | FZ divisions | Content |
arachnoidea C.B. Clarke | E,S | |
barbata D.Don | E | Description, Image |
chimanimaniensis Faden INED. [NrEnd] | E | |
foecunda Hassk. | N,W,C,E,S | Description, Image |
lanata Benth. | N,W,C,E,S | Description, Image |
longifolia Benth. | N,W,C,E | Description, Image |
speciosa (L.f.) Hassk. subsp. speciosa | N,W,C,E,S | Description, Image |