Liliaceae

Lily Family
Temporal range: 58–0 Ma
Early Paleogene - Recent
Lilium martagon
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Monocots
Order: Liliales
Family: Liliaceae
Genera

The Liliaceae, or the lily family, is a family of monocotyledons in the order Liliales. Plants in this family have linear leaves, mostly with parallel veins but with several having net venation (e.g., Cardiocrinum, Clintonia, Medeola, Prosartes, Scoliopus, Tricyrtis), and flower arranged in threes. Several have bulbs, while others have rhizomes. Shade-dwelling genera usually have broad, net-veined leaves, fleshy fruits with animal-dispersed seeds, rhizomes, and small, inconspicuous flowers; genera native to sunny habitats usually have narrow, parallel-veined leaves, capsular fruits with wind-dispersed seeds, bulbs, and large, visually conspicuous flowers.

Many plants in the Liliaceae are important ornamental plants, widely grown for their attractive flowers. Many species are poisonous if eaten and may cause serious complications, such as renal failure, in household pets, especially cats.

The lily family was formerly a paraphyletic "catch-all" group that included a great number of genera now included in other families, and some in other orders, including Agavaceae, Alliaceae, Amaryllidaceae, Asparagaceae, Asphodelaceae, Hyacinthaceae, Melanthiaceae, Nartheciaceae, Ruscaceae, Smilacaceae , Tecophilaeaceae, Themidaceae, Tofieldiaceae, and Uvulariaceae, and members of the monocot orders Asparagales, Dioscoreales, and Alismatales. Smilacaceae appears to be the family most closely related to Liliaceae.

The genus Calochortus, which includes the sego and mariposa lilies, and its allied genera are separated into a separate family Calochortaceae in some schemes, while others maintain them as a subfamily of Liliaceae, the Calochortoideae.

It is estimated that the family evolved 58 million years ago during the Early Paleogene.

Contents

Genera

The list below includes genera that have historically been classified in family Liliaceae. Monocot classification has undergone considerable revision in recent years, and some newer systems, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group's APG III classification system, have assigned many of these genera to different families based on genetic relationships. APG III transfers to other families (including subfamilies and, where it applies, orders) are listed in brackets.

Changes in APG III

The genus list above is based on the APG II system. When the APG III system was published in 2009, the families Xanthorrhoeaceae, Amaryllidaceae, and Asparagaceae, were greatly expanded. [1] Thirteen of the families of APG II were thereby reduced to subfamilies. The APG II families and their equivalent APG III subfamilies are as follows:

Gallery

References

  1. ^ Mark W. Chase, James L. Reveal, and Michael F. Fay. "A subfamilial classification for the expanded asparagalean families Amaryllidaceae, Asparagaceae and Xanthorrhoeaceae". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 161(2):132–136.

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