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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