two to tropical Africa, with one these species extending north of the equator to Sudan.

History:

The genus was named in honor of Friedrich Heinrich Theodor Freese (1795–1876), German physician.

They are herbaceous plants which grow from a corm 1–2.5 cm diameter, which sends up a tuft of narrow leaves 10–30 cm long, and a sparsely branched stem 10–40 cm tall bearing a few leaves and a loose one-sided spike of fragrant narrowly funnel-shaped flowers.