Rhodocodon Baker (1881: 280)

Knirsch, Walter, Martínez-Azorín, Mario, Pfosser, Martin & Wetschnig, Wolfgang, 2015, The reinstatement and rediagnosis of the madagascan genus Rhodocodon (Asparagaceae, Scilloideae), with validation and remarks on H. Perrier’s taxa, Phytotaxa 195 (2), pp. 101-134 : 106

Rhodocodon Baker (1881: 280) .

Bulbous plants, deciduous or evergreen; bulbs hypogeal, sometimes epiphytic; leaves 1 ‒ 7 per bulb; inflorescence a simple raceme; bracts small with lanceolate lamina and a lanceolate-oblong spur, both gradually diminishing in size to the apex of the raceme; bracteoles sometimes present; flowers urceolate to campanulate, white, greenish, brownish, rose or red coloured, lasting for 3 ‒ 7 days; perigone segments fused for most of their length with free apical lobes that are from erect to reflexed, with a single central nerve, usually persisting at the base after capsule dehiscence (sometimes abscising from the base and remaining laterally attached on top of the capsule); stamens 6, converging to the ovary and style, shorter than the perigone segments, mostly included in the perigone tube; filaments adnate to the perigone and arising from the lower half of the tube, filiform to flattened, from shorter to about as long as the anthers; anthers dorsifixed, sagittate or oblong. Ovary 3 locular, subglobose, conical to cylindrical, sessile, with septal nectaria; ovules 2 ‒ 17 per locule, collateral to more or less loosely arranged; style filiform, erect, 2 ‒ 5 mm long; stigma simple or inconspicuously three lobed. Capsule oblong-triangular to subglobose, with three valves dehiscing for their whole length. Seeds ellipsoidal or somewhat compressed, with black, glossy, brittle testa and a distinct mostly light brown or rarely black raphe, sometimes absent; or rarely fusiform, flat, with brown brittle testa, without a distinct raphe.

Typus:— Rhodocodon madagascariensis Baker = R. mascarenensis (Baker) Knirsch, Mart. -Azorín & Wetschnig