Flora Zambesiaca

Taxon Detail

FZ volume:12 part:3 (2001) Asphodelaceae by S. Kativu

Asphodelaceae Key

Range:

A family of 8 genera and c. 250 species in the Old World, with centres of distribution in west and central Asia, the Mediterranean region and South Africa.

Description:

Perennial herbs, often herbaceous geophytes perennating by rhizomes, acaulescent, rarely caulescent; rhizome often yellow when cut, sometimes pinkish.Roots fibrous, sometimes swollen or fusiform.Leaves in a basal rosette, or sometimes ± distichous on a short woody stem; lamina linear, flat to ± terete.Inflorescences terminal or lateral, pedunculate with flowers racemosely or paniculately arranged; peduncle (scape) erect, leafless, occasionally with 1–3 sterile bracts below the inflorescence; pedicels subtended by a bract, non-articulated, or articulated at the apex.Flowers bisexual, 3-merous, actinomorphic; perianth petaloid, segments (tepals) of 3 inner and 3 outer, free or fused, white or pink, greenish- or pale yellow, yellow or red.Stamens of 3 inner and 3 outer, free or slightly fused to the perianth; filaments filiform, glabrous, scabrid or hairy; anthers dorsifixed, ± versatile, longitudinally introrse dehiscent.Ovary superior, 3-locular with axile placentation; ovules 2–many per locule; style slender with a small stigma.Fruit a capsule with loculicidal dehiscence.Seeds dull brown or greyish-black, sometimes arillate.Anthraquinones present in some taxa, giving the rhizome and sometimes the roots a yellowish colour inside.

Notes:

It is closely related to the Anthericaceae from which it may sometimes be difficult to distinguish morphologically (especially the genus Trachyandra which until recently was referred to Anthericum L.).The Aloaceae are sometimes included in the Asphodelaceae.