Tilcusta Rafinesque.

Herbs perennial, rhizomatous, monopodial. Rhizome ascending or less often creeping, thick, stout, sometimes slightly woody. Stem very short or sometimes slightly elongate. Leaves basal or on short stem, usually distichous equitant, sometimes spaced, basally distinctly petiolate or not; leaf blade lorate to ovate-elliptic. Scape axillary. Inflorescence a terminal spike, several to many flowered, sometimes with several sterile bracts apically; fertile bracts lanceolate to ovate, often longer than flowers, sometimes shorter. Perianth segments 6, connate into a tube for 1/2--2/3 their length, fleshy, sometimes with a ringlike, fleshy appendage in throat; lobes often spreading, sometimes incurved, sometimes fimbriate at margin. Stamens 6; filaments proximally adnate to perianth tube, free part short to long; anthers positioned as high as or higher than stigma, dorsifixed. Ovary 3-loculed; ovules 2--4 per locule. Style 1, to 1(--3.5) mm; stigma small, 3-lobed. Fruit a berry, 1--3-seeded.

Sixteen species: Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, Sikkim; 16 species (13 endemic) in China.

(Authors: Liang Songyun (梁松筠 Liang Song-jun); Minoru N. Tamura)