Prepared by: Mischa Olson
Year updated: Spring 2013
Liliaceae
The Lily Family
16 genera
635 species
Distribution:
Widely distributed in the temperate regions of
the Northern Hemisphere
Economic Uses:
- Many ornamentals.
Reduced Monocot Phylogeny of Required
Families
Characteristic features:
- Perennial herbs, rarely branched, usually
with bulbs and contractile roots.
- Flowers: often large, bisexual and
actinomorphic; 6 distinct tepals, 3 carpels
in a superior ovary, 6 stamens; nectaries at
base of tepals; spots on tepals; extrorse
anthers.
- Fruit: a loculicidal capsule, sometimes a
berry.
- No onion-like odor.
Common example(s):
- Erythronium: trout-lily – native spring
wildflower of woodlands.
- Tulipa: tulips – scapose herbs from
tunicate bulbs; stigma prominently 3-
lobed.
References for further inquiry:
- Fay, M.F. et al. Phylogenetics of Liliales:
Summarized evidence from combined
analyses of five plastid and one
mitochondrial loci. Pp. 559-565. In:
Columbus, J.T. et al. (eds), Monocots:
Comparative Biology and Evolution.
Claremont, California, Rancho Santa Ana
Botanic Garden (2006).
- Heywood, V.H., Brummitt, R.K., Culham, A.,
& Seberg, O. Liliaceae. Pp. 378-379. In:
Flowering Plant Families of the World. New
York, Firefly Books (2007).