Description
The family is characterized by the presence of colchicine.Taxonomy
The APG III system, of 2009 (unchanged from the APG systems, of 1998 and 2003), recognizes this family and places it in the order Liliales, in the clade monocots. It is a group of herbaceous perennials with rhizomes or corms. The Dahlgren system and the Thorne system (1992) also recognized this family, and placed it in order Liliales in superorder Lilianae in subclass Liliidae (monocotyledons) of class Magnoliopsida (angiosperms).Genera
The phylogenetic classification of Vinnersten & Manning circumscribes the family as follows: * tribe Burchardieae ** '' Burchardia'' R.Br. * tribe Uvularieae ** '' Disporum'' Salisb. (excluding the North American species to the genus '' Prosartes'' D.Don, now in the family Liliaceae, Liliales) ** '' Uvularia'' L. * tribe Tripladenieae ** '' Kuntheria'' Conran & Clifford ** '' Schelhammera'' R.Br. ** '' Tripladenia'' D.Don * tribe Iphigenieae ** '' Camptorrhiza'' E.Phillips ** '' Iphigenia'' Kunth * tribe Anguillarieae ** '' Baeometra'' Salisb. ** '' Wurmbea'' Thunb. (including ''Neodregea'' C.H.Wright and ''Onixotis'' Raf.) * tribe Colchiceae ** '' Colchicum'' L. (including ''Androcymbium'' Willd., ''Bulbocodium'' L. and ''Merendera'' Ramond) ** '' Gloriosa'' L. (including ''Littonia'' Hook.) ** '' Hexacyrtis'' Dinter ** '' Ornithoglossum'' Salisb. ** '' Sandersonia'' Hook. The genus ''Petermannia'' F.Muell. is excluded from this family and placed in its own family Petermanniaceae, Liliales. The former controversy regarding the inclusion of '' Androcymbium'' in '' Colchicum'' has now been resolved in favor of the 2007 classification of Manning ''et al.'' who included ''Androcymbium'' in ''Colchicum''. This is supported by molecular phylogenetic studies with dense species sampling (i.e. 41 species previously placed in ''Androcymbium'' and 96 species of ''Colchicum'') that showed that the type species of ''Androcymbium'', ''A. melanthioides'' ('' Colchicum melanthioides''), is more closely related to species of ''Colchicum'' than it is to many species traditionally placed in ''Androcymbium''. Subsequently, Nguyen et al.(2013) proposed reclassifying the family on the basis of subfamilies: * Subfamily Uvularioideae (distribution: Eastern Asia and North America) ** Tribe Uvularieae (''Disporum'', ''Uvularia'') * Subfamily Wurmbeoideae (distribution: Australia, Africa, Europe, central and tropical Asia) ** Tribe Burchardieae (''Burchardia'') ** Tribe Tripladenieae (''Tripladenia'', ''Schelhammera'', ''Kuntheria'') ** Tribe Iphigenieae (''Iphigenia'', ''Camptorrhiza'') ** Tribe Angullarieae (''Wurmbea'', ''Onixotis'', ''Neodregea'', ''Baeometra'') ** Tribe Colchiceae (''Gloriosa'' (including ''Littonia''), ''Colchicum'' (including ''Merendera'', ''Bulbocodium'', and probably ''Androcymbium''), ''Hexacyrtis'', ''Ornithoglossum'', ''Sandersonia''References
Bibliography
* * * *External links
*