Perennial herbs, densely caespitouse, glabrous; rootstock thick slender; aerial stem absent; scapes 1-flowered, many. Rosette leaves linear, narrow, sessile, subfleshy, glabrous, acute, usually entire; cauline leaves absent. Scapes (pedicel) 1-flowered, c. as long as the radical leaves, filiform. Flowers white, often large, overtopping the leaves. Sepals suberect, inner saccate at base. Petals c. twice as long as the sepals, obovate, cuneate below or short-clawed, densely veined. Stamens 6; filaments not appendaged; anthers oblong, subobtuse. Lateral nectar glands semi-annular; middle glands present, torose, joining the laterals. Ovary oblong, sessile, c. 12-ovuled; style short, slightly thickened with depressed, sub-bilobed stigma. Siliquae short, oblong, narrow, subcylindrical, often curved above, subtorulose, bilocular, dehiscent, glabrous; valves subconvex; septum obscurely 1-veined, whitish; seeds 1-seriate, ovoid, not mucilaginous when wet.