'Flower types' provides explanatory diagrams of the more unusual types of flower such as the daisies, peas, and orchids, as well as for the terms actinomorphic and
zygomorphic, which relate to floral structure.
The habit of these species is very peculiar because of their adaptations to the parasitic lifestyle, including greatly reduced, achlorophyllous, vegetative organs, and colorful dense inflorescences with
zygomorphic flowers on fleshy stems (Piwowarczyk et al.
Lithophytic rosulated, cespitose herbs to 1.7 m high, with conspicuous slender stolons, the mature rosettes
zygomorphic; leaves 15-20 per rosette, sheaths white, lustrous on both surfaces, blades light green with purple marginal bands, narrowly triangular, densely lepidote abaxially; inflorescence lateral, erect; peduncle bracts foliaceous, 2-20 cm long, linear, attenuate and pungent, spiny at the margins; staminate inflorescences twice branched; pistillate inflorescences once branched; staminate flowers white, sessile; filaments in the male flowers 3.9-4.2 mm long, anthers yellow, 2-2.5 mm long, with a conspicuous apical acumen; pistillate flowers greenish white, sessile; sepals 3.5-4.3 mm long; petals narrowly triangular elliptic, 5.8-6 mm long.