LILIACEAE
1. SYSTEMATIC POSITION:
Bentham
& Hooker
Division: Phanerogames (Seed Plants)
Class:
Monocotyledones
Series:
Coronarieae
Family: Liliaceae
2. MORPHOLOGICAL
CHARACTERS:
Habit
– Annual, biennial and perennial herbs or shrubs with a bulbous or
rhizomatous stem, sometimes climbing or arborescent, xerophytic in nature.
Leaves
– Simple, radical or cauline, alternate or whorl, parallel veined, fleshy
and succulent.
Inflorescence
– Racemose or sometimes cymose.
Flower
– Hermaphrodite, usually trimerous, actinomorphic, hypogynous, bracteates.
Perianth
– Tepals 6, arranged in two whorls, free or united, valvate or imbricate.
Androecium
– Stamens 6, in 2 whorls, free or connate, anthers dithecous, introrse and
basifixed.
Gynoecium
– Tricarpellary, syncarpous, superior, trilocular, ovules 2 or more in each
loculus, placentation axile, stigma trilobed.
Fruit
– Berry or capsule.
4.
COMPARATIVE
SYSTEMATIC POSITION AND AFFINITIES:
Engler & Prantl
have included the family Liliaceae in the order Liliflorae. Bentham &
Hooker placed the Liliaceae in the series Coronariaceae. Hutchinson has placed
Liliaceae together with other five families in his order Liliales.
The
family Liliaceae is considered to be most primitive to the basic
monocotyledonous stock from which other families of monocots have originated.
It is usually regarded as the most typical family of the monocotyledonous
group. The Liliaceae is alike to Amaryllidaceae.
The Liliaceae
originated from the Helobiales or its ancestors since the flowers of some
genera of the Liliaceae possess semi-free carpels.
5.
ECONOMIC
IMPORTANCE:
1. The bulbs of Allium
sepa (Onion) and A. sativum (Garlic)
are used as vegetables and condiments. The roots of Asparagus racemosus and Chlorophytum
arundinaceae are used as food and also for the preparation of Jam and
Jelly.
2. The leaves Sansevieria roxburghi and
Yucca gloriosa yields fibre.
3. Some plants are medicinally
important, such as Aloe barbadensis, Smilax zeylanica, and many species of Urainea.
4.
Species of Dracaena yields a type of
red resinous juice. Many plants like Glorlosa
superb, Hemerocallis fulva, Sansevieria, etc., are cultivated as ornamental
garden plants.
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