Perennial herbs or banana-like trees with true stems. Leaves usually very large, distichous. Inflorescence partially enclosed by a boat-shaped bract. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic. Sepals 3, petaloid; lowest boat-shaped towards the base. Petals 3, ± 3, the 2 lower connivent and forming a sagittate blade with a central channel containing the floral parts; upper petal much smaller. Stamens 5. Ovary inferior, 3-locular. Fruit a woody capsule. Seeds with a woolly aril. Worldwide: 3 genera and 7 species, tropical America, southern Africa and Madagascar. |
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