Habit: perennial herbs
Stems***: ***with swollen nodes
Leaves: spirally arranged with a closed sheath
Inflorescence***: cymose, subtended by a sheathing bract (spathe--usually boat-shaped)
Flowers: perfect, regular or irregular
Sepals: 3, usually green
Petals: 3, mostly distinct, usually blue or white, sometimes clawed, all alike or 1 different color and reduced
Anthers***: mostly 6 (1-3), sometimes 3 are staminodia with cross-shaped anther-sacs; filaments with long single-celled hairs (that may have use as indicator of pollution change colors from blue to pink.....)
Carpels: 3; ovary superior, with axile placentation and many ovules
Fruit: a capsule
Diversity: 50 genera/600 species
Distribution: tropics and subtropics
Economics: some cultivated ornamentals: Zebrina; Rhoeo; Tradescantia; Chlorophytum;