Rhizome densely fleshy, branched, often with tuber bearing roots. Inflorescence terminal on a leafy shoot (i.e. borne in the centre of a leaf tuft) or on a separate shoot and sometimes precocious. Bracts adnate to each other for about half their length, forming pouches, each subtending a cincinnus of several flowers; uppermost bracts sterile and often differently coloured (the coma). Bracteoles open to the base. Calyx tubular, unilaterally split, unequally 3-lobed. Corolla tube infundibuliform, limb unequally 3-lobed. Lateral staminodes petaloid, folded under the dorsal petal. Labellum with a thickened central portion and thinner side lobes which overlap behind the staminodes. Anther versatile, spurred at the base.