Perennial plants from a short thick erect rhizome, the scapes erect, 20-40 cm high; leaves erect or ascending, not floating, often exceeding the scapes, long-petiolate, the petiole vaginate; leaf blades variable in shape, lanceolate to oblong-elliptic in Central American plants, sometimes broadly ovate in other regions, mostly 8-18 cm long, acute to rounded at the apex, attenuate at the base; inflorescences umbelliform, 2-12-flowered, the pedicels 3-4 cm long, somewhat dilated and trigonous above; flowers yellow, about 1.5 cm broad, the sepals green, broadly ovate, obtuse; petals broadly ovate or suborbicular, longer than the sepals; mature follicles about 1 cm long.
