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Description:
Evergreen woody shrubs with a woody underground caudex. Stems with anomalous, monocot-type secondary growth, woody. Leaves unifacial, in 2 ranks, without main vein. Inflorescence units binate rhipidia (flower clusters) enclosed in paired, opposed leafy or dry spathes, units variously aggregated into false corymbs, racemes or heads. Flowers long lasting, radially symmetric, with septal nectaries; tepals united in a tube below, spreading or upright above. Filaments free; anthers loculicidal and extrorse; pollen monosulcate, exine reticulate. Ovary inferior; style slender, apically 3-notched or dividing into 3 slender branches. Capsules ± woody. Seeds tangentially compressed, shield-shaped. Basic chromosome number x = 16.
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