Brodiaeoideae are a

monocot Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, (Lilianae ''sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are flowering plants whose seeds contain only one Embryo#Plant embryos, embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. A monocot taxon has been in use for several decades, but ...

subfamily of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Asparagaceae Asparagaceae (), known as the asparagus family, is a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots. The family name is based on the edible garden asparagus, '' Asparagus officinalis''. This family includes both ...

, order Asparagales. They have been treated as a separate family, Themidaceae. They are native to

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

and western

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, from

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

.Ole Seberg. 2007. "Themidaceae" page 404. In: Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. ''Flowering Plant Families of the World''. Firefly Books: Ontario, Canada. The name of the subfamily is based on the type

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

'' Brodiaea''. In

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

analyses, Brodiaeoideae is strongly supported as

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

. It is probably

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to ref ...

to Scilloideae.J. Chris Pires, Ivan J. Maureira, Thomas J. Givnish, Kenneth J. Sytsma, Ole Seberg, Gitte Petersen, Jerrold I. Davis, Dennis W. Stevenson, Paula J. Rudall, Michael F. Fay, and Mark W. Chase. 2006. "Phylogeny, genome size, and chromosome evolution of Asparagales". ''Aliso'' 22(''Monocots: Comparative Biology and Evolution''):287-304. ISSN 0065-6275. Recent treatments have divided Brodiaeoideae (or Themidaceae) into 12

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

.Knud Rahn. 1998. "Themidaceae" pages 436-441. In: Klaus Kubitzki (general editor) with Klaus Kubitzki, Herbert F.J. Huber, Paula J. Rudall, Peter F. Stevens, and Thomas Stützel (volume editors). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' volume III. Springer-Verlag: Berlin;Heidelberg, Germany. The monophyly of several of the genera remains in doubt. As currently circumscribed, the largest genera are ''Triteleia'', with 15

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

, and ''Brodiaea'', with 14.Flora of North America Editorial Committee. 2002. ''Flora of North America'' volume 26:321-347. Oxford University Press. . see ''External links'' below. Nine of the 12 genera are known in cultivation, but only species of ''Brodiaea'' and ''Triteleia'' are commonly grown. Anthony Huxley, Mark Griffiths, and Margot Levy (1992). ''The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening''. The Macmillan Press,Limited: London. The Stockton Press: New York. (set).

Description

The following description is derived from two sources.Armen L. Takhtajan (Takhtadzhian). ''Flowering Plants'' second edition (2009). Springer Science+Business Media. .

Perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

herbs arising from a

starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diet ...

y corm; a new corm arising each year from the old one.

Leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

linear In mathematics, the term ''linear'' is used in two distinct senses for two different properties: * linearity of a '' function'' (or '' mapping''); * linearity of a '' polynomial''. An example of a linear function is the function defined by f(x) ...

, often fleshy, forming a closed sheath at their base. Veins parallel.

Inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

an umbel, or rarely a single flower, at the apex of a solitary scape.

Flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s bisexual, actinomorphic. Tepals all similar, in 2 whorls of 3. Fertile

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s 6, or 3 and alternating with 3 staminodes. Stamens and staminodes inserted on tepals.

Anther The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s basifixed and introrse.

Ovary The ovary () is a gonad in the female reproductive system that produces ova; when released, an ovum travels through the fallopian tube/ oviduct into the uterus. There is an ovary on the left and the right side of the body. The ovaries are end ...

superior and trilocular.

Fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

a loculicidal capsule.

Seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...

covered with phytomelan.

History

For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, when the group was recognized at all, it was usually at

tribal The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

rank and usually called Brodiaeeae. Most authors assigned it to Liliaceae, Alliaceae, or

Amaryllidaceae The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous (rarely rhizomatous) flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus '' Amaryllis'' and is commonly known as the amaryl ...

. In 1985, Dahlgren, Clifford, and Yeo treated it as tribe Brodiaeeae of Alliaceae.Rolf M.T. Dahlgren, H. Trevor Clifford, and Peter F. Yeo. 1985. ''The Families of the Monocotyledons''. Springer-Verlag: Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo. . . Toward the end of the 20th century, it became increasingly evident that the heterogeneous Liliaceae recognized by most authors was several times

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

and that ''Brodiaea'' and its relatives were closer to

Asparagus Asparagus (''Asparagus officinalis'') is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus ''Asparagus (genus), Asparagus'' native to Eurasia. Widely cultivated as a vegetable crop, its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable. Description ...

than to ''

Allium ''Allium'' is a large genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants with around 1000 accepted species, making ''Allium'' the largest genus in the family Amaryllidaceae and among the largest plant genera in the world. Many of the species are edible, ...

'' or '' Amaryllis''. For these reasons, the family Themidaceae was resurrected in an article in

Taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

in 1996.Michael F. Fay and Mark W. Chase. 1996. "Resurrection of Themidaceae for the ''Brodiaea'' alliance, and recircumscription of Alliaceae, Amaryllidaceae, and Agapanthoideae". ''Taxon'' 45(3):441-451. (see ''External links'' below). The

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

'Themidaceae' was first used by Richard Salisbury in 1866.Richard Salisbury. 1866. ''The Genera of Plants. A Fragment Containing Part of Liriogamae'':84. John van Voorst: Paternoster Row, London, England. (see ''External links'' below). The name was based on the now-defunct genus ''Themis'', which was established by Salisbury along with the family. The only species ever assigned to ''Themis'' was ''Themis ixioides''. Its name was changed to ''Brodiaea ixioides'' by

Sereno Watson Sereno Watson (December 1, 1826 – March 9, 1892) was an American botanist. Life Watson was born on December 1, 1826, in East Windsor Hill, Connecticut. Graduating from Yale in 1847 in biology, he drifted through various occupations unt ...

in 1879,Sereno Watson. 1879. "Revision of the North American Liliaceae". In: ''Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences'' 14:238. (see ''External links'' below). then to ''Triteleia ixioides'' by

Edward Lee Greene Edward Lee Greene (August 20, 1843–November 10, 1915) was an American botanist known for his numerous publications including the two-part ''Landmarks of Botanical History'' and the describing of over 4,400 species of plants in the American W ...

in 1886.Edward Lee Greene. 1886. "Some Genera Which have been Confused Under the Name ''Brodiaea''". In: ''Bulletin of the California Academy of Sciences'' 2(6):142. (see ''External links'' below). It is known as ''Triteleia ixioides'' in

Flora of North America The ''Flora of North America North of Mexico'' (usually referred to as ''FNA'') is a multivolume work describing the native plants and naturalized plants of North America, including the United States, Canada, St. Pierre and Miquelon, and Greenla ...

.''Triteleia ixioides'' in Flora of North America @ efloras.org. (n.d.). Retrieved June 18, 2024, from http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242102031 When the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group published the APG II system in 2003, Themidaceae was treated as an optional circumscription for those who thought that

sensu lato should be divided into smaller segregate families. When the APG III system was published in 2009, Themidaceae was not accepted. In an accompanying article, it was treated as Brodiaeoideae, one of 7 subfamilies in Asparagaceae.

Genera

According to the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website , the genera included in the subfamily are: * '' Androstephium'' Torr. * '' Bessera'' Schult.f. (including ''Behria'') * '' Bloomeria'' Kellogg * '' Brodiaea'' Sm. * '' Dandya'' H.E.Moore * '' Dichelostemma'' Kunth (including ''Brevoortia'', ''Dipterostemon'', ''Stropholirion'') * '' Milla'' Cav. (including ''Diphalangium'') * '' Muilla'' S.Watson ex Benth. * '' Petronymphe'' H.E.Moore * '' Triteleia'' Douglas ex Lindl. (including ''Hesperoscordium'', ''Themis'') * '' Triteleiopsis'' Hoover * '' Xochiquetzallia'' J.Gut

Description

History

Genera

References

Bibliography

External links