Cerochlamys

Compact tufted perennials. Leaves opposite, shortly united at base, 1-3 pairs on a branch, trigonously clavate with rounded keels, often twisted almost at right angles from base, firm in texture with waxy covering, +/- 40 mm long, purplish green to yellowish. Flowers terminal, 1-3; pedicel bracteolate; opening in late morning, open all day, long-lasting. Sepals 5 or 6, nearly equal. Petals 2- or 3-seriate, free, linear, pink with white bases, or white. Stamens: filaments epapillate; anthers yellow or orange. Staminodes present. Nectary appearing annular, of 5 separate crenulate glands, touching each other. Ovary obconic, flattish on top; placentas parietal; stigmas 5 or 6, short, acute. Fruit a 5- or 6-locular capsule; persisting on the plant; shortly obconic to nearly flat, with raised sutures on top; possibly close to Mitrophyllum type because of its widely diverging, broad expanding keels ending in awns, but valve wings absent; valves with high rims, only opening into a vertical position; spongy tissue separating locules; covering membranes stiff, acute, with dense mass of funicles at openings of locules. Seeds acutely ovoid, microscopically tuberculate. x = 9. F lowering in autumn and winter. D istinguishing characters: small tufted perennials flowering in mid-winter; leaves purplish green with a partially peeling waxy covering; capsule valves open to vertical position only.