Herbs, evergreen, armored, helophytic or of forest swamps. Stem long creeping and stoloniferous with terminal part erect or ascending, with armed internodes. Leaves several, crowded at shoot apex; petiole long, aculeate, inside with longitudinal air vessels; pulvinus well developed, solid; leaf blade sagittate-hastate, simple or divided, prickly abaxially on larger veins, pinnately veined above bifurcate basal veins; secondary venation reticulate. Inflorescences solitary, long pedunculate; peduncle prickly. Spathe constricted above spadix; basal part when mature opening by a slit, long caudate part involute and twisted, at last whole falling off. Spadix sessile, cylindric, within widened part of spathe. Flowers bisexual; tepals 4-6, free, with vaulted-truncate apex. Stamens 4-6; anthers elliptic, dehiscent by a longitudinal slit; filaments much longer. Ovary 1-loculed, 1-ovuled; ovule hanging from apex of locule; style very short; stigma subspherical. Fruit a berry; exocarp thin; mesocarp finely fibrous; endocarp rather thick, leathery, upper part and area around stigma prickly. Seed large, compressed; endosperm absent, embryo large, campylotropous.

Two species: tropical Asia; one species in China.

(Authors: Li Heng (李恒 Li Hen); Peter C. Boyce)