The plants are deciduous or rarely evergreen perennials with a bulb, which can sometimes be quite large. The leaves are usually lance-shaped and soft-textured, with rather slimy sap. The leaves are mostly held upright but in several species from the South African winter rainfall area they lie flat against the ground. Mostly the leaves are smooth and unmarked but in most species of Ledebouria (also some Lachenalia and Eucomis from South Africa) the leaves are attractively spotted or streaked with purple or dark green. Occasionally the leaves may have their upper surface covered with warts or pustules, or coarse hairs, especially in species of Lachenalia and Massonia. In some species the leaves are narrow and needle-like or cylindrical. The flower stalk is leafless and the flowers are always arranged in racemes. Sometimes these may be very short so that the flowers are crowded into a head-like cluster. In the genera Bowiea and Igidiae the raceme is highly branched and sprawls through the surrounding vegetation. Each flower arises in the axil of a bract, which may be large and leaf-like or minute and vestigial. In the subfamily Urgineoideae the lower bracts have a flattened spur at their base. In some genera a second smaller bract arises on the base of the flower stalk, or pedicel, as well.

The flowers are mostly radially symmetrical with six tepals (petals) arranged in two whorls of three each. These may be similar to one another, or the inner three may differ slightly from the outer three, often just in shape but sometimes also in size and markings. In a very few species of Daubenya the lower flowers in the raceme are more or less two-lipped and thus bilaterally (not radially) symmetrical. The flowers vary in colour from dull greenish or grey, through white, to blue, yellow, orange or red. In several speciesof Lachenalia they are multicoloured, often with dark tips on the outer three tepals. In some species the flowers are very fragrant. The petals are either separate or joined at the bottom into a short or long tube. The flowers of most species last several days but are much shorter-lived in all species of Drimia, where they last just a few hours or a single day at most. The six stamens are inserted at the base of the petals or just within the tube (if present). The ovary is superior with three locules each containing several to many ovules attached to the centre. Each flower has a single style.

The fruit is a dry capsule that splits open along three sides to release the seeds. These are very variable in shape. In most genera they are tetrahedral or variously angled and without obvious adaptations for dispersal. Flattened seeds with wing-like edges that are adapted to wind dispersal characterise the subfamily Urgineoideae, whereas glossy, globose or pear-shaped seeds characterise the subfamily Hyacinthoideae. No species have fleshy seeds.

The species grow in all sorts of soils, derived from granite, basalt, dolerite, clay, limestone and sandstone. Most species favour loamy or clay soils, often among rocks where drainage is good, but some grow in marshes and others in pure sand. Species grow from the coast to the top of the interior escarpment at over 3 000 m. Relatively few species are very localised in occurrence, but the species ofDaubenya is a notable exception.