Herbs, perennial or biennial, usually short-lived, succulent, glabrous. Roots fibrous or tuberous. Stems: flowering shoots annual, prostrate to ascending. Leaves rosulate, or cauline and alternate or opposite, sessile; stipules absent; blade linear, ± grooved, ± triangular in cross section. Inflorescences axillary, flowers solitary; peduncle erect, 10(-12) cm; bracts absent. Flowers showy, tubular, 5-13 cm diam.; calyx lobes 5, green, unequal, wider at base, apex cylindric, basal margins of inner 3 lobes papery; petals (including petaloid staminodia) 250, distinct, free, yellow; nectary present; stamens 500+, distinct; filament bases hairy; pistil 10-25-carpellate; ovary inferior, connate in proximal 1/2, 10-25-loculed; placentation parietal with 2 seed pockets on outer wall of each locule; styles absent; stigmas 10-25, filiform. Fruits capsules, conic; valves 10-25, opening but not spreading when moistened, finally separating into 10-25 segments. Seeds 75-200, spheric, margins keeled, smooth; arils absent.
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Succulent glabrous perennial herbs with erect or prostrate stems arising from a dense basal rosette of leaves; root cylindrical, fleshy. Leaves opposite, crowded, triquetrous to almost cylindrical, long and narrow, tapering, acute, partly ensheathing stem. Flowers solitary, terminal, on long pedicels. Sepals 5, equal in size, broad at base tapering sharply to an elongate terete tip, 3 with membranous margins. Petal-like staminodes many, yellow; stamens many. Styles 10–20; ovary inferior or partly superior; locules 10–20; placentation parietal. Fruit a capsule dehiscing when dry; upper conical half separating into 10–20 narrow segments; valves winged; expanding keels absent; locules without roofs, placental tubercles absent. Seeds subglobose or lenticular, smooth.
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