Deilanthe

Almost stemless tufted perennials with a thick and firmly fleshy rootstock, deeply rooting. Leaves opposite, united at base in sparse rosettes, spatulate-ovate or spatulate-lanceolate, flat on ground to erect, dark green to reddish brown and inconspicuously dotted, velvety. Flowers solitary or in delayed sets of three, pedicellate, bracteate at base of thick pedicel; opening in late afternoon or evening. Sepals 5, subequal. Petals in 3 or 4 series, free, linear to narrowly spatulate, pale to deep yellow or a greyish salmon colour sometimes obscurely striped with white. Stamens erect, in a loose cylindrical mass, papillate. Nectary glands large, in a crenulate ring. Ovary flattish or slightly convex on top, glassy; placentas basal to parietal; stigmas 8-12, erect, subulate. Fruit a 8-12-locular capsule, shortly obconic, flattish at top, with raised sutures; valves narrowly deltoid, with a very prominent, acute keel on inner face; expanding keels diverging from base, +/- half as long as valve, each tipped with a pallid awn reaching nearly to tips of valves, and with short, broad, membranous marginal wings at base united in pairs between valves; covering membranes rather stiff, closing bodies small. Seeds pear-shaped, smooth. F lowering from winter to early spring. D istinguishing characters: rosette-forming perennials with tuberous roots; leaves spatulate-ovate or spatulate-lanceolate, velvety and often dust-covered; flowers deep yellow to salmon-coloured, opening in the afternoon.