Alternatively Parid(ac)eae Dum.
~ Liliaceae
Including Phlebaceae Dulac (p.p.)
Excluding Scoliopus, Medeola (transferred to Uvulariaceae)
Habit and leaf form. Herbs. `Normal' plants. Perennial; with neither basal nor terminal aggregations of leaves; rhizomatous, or rhizomatous and tuberous. Mesophytic (mostly woodland species). Leaves whorled (in a single whorl, borne high on the stem); 3-8(-10) per whorl (generally the same number as the perianth whorls); flat; petiolate to sessile; simple. Lamina entire; lanceolate, or oblong to ovate; parallel-veined; cross-venulate; attenuate at the base, or cuneate at the base. Lamina margins entire; flat.
Leaf anatomy. The mesophyll containing calcium oxalate crystals. The mesophyll crystals raphides. Minor leaf veins without phloem transfer cells (Trillium). Vessels absent.
Stem anatomy. Primary vascular tissue in two or more rings of bundles. Secondary thickening absent. Xylem without vessels.
Root anatomy. Root xylem with vessels. Vessel end-walls scalariform.
Reproductive type, pollination. Hermaphrodite. Floral nectaries present. Nectar secretion from the perianth, or from the gynoecium, or from the perianth and from the gynoecium. Entomophilous.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers solitary; medium-sized (to `rather large'); regular; 3-5(-8) merous; cyclic; tetracyclic, or pentacyclic. Perigone tube absent. Hypogynous disk absent.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla, or sepaline, or of `tepals'; 6-18; free; 2 whorled (the inner whorl rudimentary in Paris tetraphylla); isomerous; petaloid, or sepaloid and petaloid; similar in the two whorls to different in the two whorls (often different in shape and/or colour); green, or purple; persistent. Calyx (when regarded as such) 3-5(-8); 1 whorled; polysepalous; regular; persistent; imbricate, or contorted. Corolla (when the inner whorl thus interpreted) 3-5(-8); 1 whorled; polypetalous; imbricate, or contorted; regular; white, or yellow, or purple (etc.); persistent. Petals sessile; entire.
Androecium 6-10(-16). Androecial members free of the perianth; all equal; free of one another; 1 - whorled, or 2 - whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 6-10(-16); diplostemonous; op\po\siti\peri\anthial (often portraid thus in floral diagrams), or al\ter\ni\peri\anthial. Filaments appendiculate (by prologation of the connective), or not appendiculate. Anthers basifixed; non-versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse; tetrasporangiate. Microsporogenesis successive. Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains aperturate, or nonaperturate (Trillium); when aperturate, 1 - aperturate; sulcate; 2-celled.
Gynoecium 3-6(-8). Carpels isomerous with the perianth. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious to synstylovarious; superior. Ovary 1 locular, or 3-6(-8) locular. Gynoecium in Paris transverse. Ovary sessile. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 3-6(-8); free, or partially joined; apical. Stigmas dry type; papillate; Group II type (B(i)). Placentation when unilocular, parietal (the placentas strongly intrusive); when plurilocular, axile. Ovules in the single cavity 20-100 (`many'); 15-50 per locule (`many'); anatropous; bitegmic; crassinucellate. Outer integument not contributing to the micropyle. Embryo-sac development Allium-type, or Adoxa-type. Polar nuclei fusing only after one has been fertilized, or fusing simultaneously with the male gamete (?). Antipodal cells formed; 3; not proliferating; ephemeral, or persistent. Synergids pear-shaped. Endosperm formation nuclear, or helobial.
Fruit fleshy; dehiscent, or indehiscent; a capsule (fleshy, e.g. Trillium), or a berry (e.g. Paris). Capsules loculicidal. Seeds endospermic. Embryo rudimentary at the time of seed release, or weakly differentiated. Embryo achlorophyllous (1/1); globose to ovoid. Testa without phytomelan.
Physiology, biochemistry. Not cyanogenic. Proanthocyanidins absent. Flavonols present; kaempferol and quercetin. Ellagic acid absent. Saponins/sapogenins present (steroidal, sometimes poisonous).
Geography, cytology. Holarctic and Paleotropical. Temperate. Temperate Eurasia, North America.
Taxonomy. Subclass Monocotyledonae. Superorder Liliiflorae; Dioscoreales. Species 53. Genera 4; Daiswa, Kinugasa, Paris, Trillium.
Illustrations. trill856.gif
Additional, to be intercalated. Flowers terminal (on the erect stem).
