| Classification |
| Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order Type: Basal Angiosperms-Monocots
Order: Liliales
Family Latin Name: Liliaceae
Family Common Name: Lily Family
Genera: Fritillaria, Lilium, Tulipa |
Defining Features: Botanists
once placed a large fraction of all monocots in this family and order Liliales.
Now Liliaceae is reduced to just 12 genera, but many have spectacular flowers
and widely cultivated. Some species are poisonous.
Defining Morphology: Floral
Features: Flowers are bisexual and often actinomorphic. Inflorescences
are usually determinate and sometimes reduced to a solitary flower. Ovaries
are superior with axile placentation. Fruit and Seed Features: Monocotyledon.
Fruit a capsule or berry in forest-dwelling groups. Seeds mostly flattened
or rounded to angular. Embryo is short. Endosperm is present. Vegetative
Features: Habit is mostly as perennial herbs from bulbs with contractile
roots. Leaves are simple, sometimes whorled, and variously arranged with
often sheathing at base. Venation is usually parallel, but net-like in
Clintonia and Medeola of forest understories.
Distribution: North Temperate,
especially North America and East Asia.
Economic Use: Cultivated for
garden and indoor ornamentals.
Number of Genera Globally:
12
Number of Species Globally:
500
