Herbs caulescent, erect or prostrate, sometimes much branched, occasionally with tuberous, swollen rhizomes. Leaves both basal and cauline or all cauline; petiole sheathing at base. Inflorescences 2 to several per leafy shoot, each a dichotomous panicle or raceme; bracts few, each subtending 2--6 pedicellate flower pairs, herbaceous, late deciduous or persistent. Sepals green, herbaceous. Corolla white; tube 4--14 mm, base often inflated; lobes subequal. Staminode tube usually short; staminodes white, occasionally tinged or marked with purple; outer staminodes 2, petaloid, obovate, exceeding corolla lobes; cucullate staminode with median or subterminal appendage; callose staminode obovate, apex petaloid. Ovary 1-loculed by abortion. Style thick. Fruit a capsule, obovoid to ellipsoid, dehiscent. Seed 1.

Additional species, e.g., Maranta bicolor Ker Gawler, are cultivated in S China as ornamentals. One of us (Kennedy) notes that the plant illustrated in FRPS (pl. 56, f. 4) as M. bicolor is in fact M. leuconeura E. Morren var. kerchoveana (E. Morren) Petersen.

About 32 species: tropical America; one species (introduced) in China.