Stems: several from a deep-seated perennial rootstock. Leaves: none, bracts scaly. Flowers: corolla none, calyx of five rounded sepals, erosely dentate. Fruit: capsule globose, seeds minute, scobiliform, the loose coat produced at both ends.

There is only one known species of this curious parasitic plant, which is deep cream-coloured with red stripes. The numerous tiny flowers grow in a wand-shaped spike, and the ovate, scaly bracts are closely set at the base of the thick stems, becoming fewer above, and gradually passing into the narrow bracts of the many-flowered spike. The little pedicels are erect or spreading, and two-bracted, while the several stems grow from six to twelve inches high from a deep-seated, perennial rootstock.