Perennial herbs up to 50 cm tall, succulent. Rhizome woody, covered with leaf bases. Leaves mostly basal, rosulate, coriaceous, glandular-punctate, alternate, bases sheathing. Scape thick with a showy racemose or corymbose inflorescence. Flowers pentamerous, hypanthium cupuliform, free from the carpels. Sepals 5, erect. Stamens 10. Carpels 2(-3); ovary superior; styles persistent, divergent. Capsule bi- or tri-locular, many-seeded, dehiscing longitudinally between the styles. Seeds elongate, smooth or minutely tuberculate.