Trilliaceae was a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...
s. The family has been recognised as distinct since 1846 when it was recognized; this tabl
for a summarizes the placement of these taxa. The family has been recognized by taxonomists such as Takhtajan, Dahlgren, Thorne, and Watson & Dallwitz; other taxonomists have considered these plants to belong to the family
Liliaceae
The lily family, Liliaceae, consists of about 15 genera and 610 species of flowering plants within the order Liliales. They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a f ...
. The
APG IV system
The APG IV system of flowering plant classification is the fourth version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy for flowering plants (angiosperms) being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). It was publish ...
, of 2016 (unchanged from the
APG system
The APG system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system) of plant classification is the first version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy. Published in 1998 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, it was replaced by the improved ...
, of 1998), does not recognize such a family either and assigns the plants involved to family
Melanthiaceae
Melanthiaceae, also called the bunchflower family, is a family of flowering herbaceous perennial plants native to the Northern Hemisphere. Along with many other lilioid monocots, early authors considered members of this family to belong to ...
, tribe Parideae. One problem with this recognition is the lack of morphological
synapomorphies
In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to hav ...
for the family
Melanthiaceae
Melanthiaceae, also called the bunchflower family, is a family of flowering herbaceous perennial plants native to the Northern Hemisphere. Along with many other lilioid monocots, early authors considered members of this family to belong to ...
; this char
provides a summary of the characters in each of the major groups.
Nevertheless, some taxonomists still recognize a separate family Trilliaceae. The most important genus in North America is ''
Trillium'', and the taxonomy of that genus has always been controversial. To paraphrase what
Steven Elliott wrote of the genus ''Trillium'' in 1817,
:"this family is an interesting one. A whorl of leaves at the summit of a stem, supporting a single flower, it contains and conceals many species."
A recent treatment (Farmer and Schilling 2002) stated that the family Trilliaceae, which exhibits an arcto-tertiary distribution, comprises six genera. Three of these exhibit a wide distribution:
* ''
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
'' from Iceland to Japan,
* ''
Daiswa'' from eastern Asia, and
* ''Trillium'' from North America and eastern Asia
Three are monotypic, endemic genera:
* ''Trillidium govanianum'', with a tepaloid inflorescence, from the Himalayan Mountains;
* ''
Kinugasa japonica'', with petaloid sepals, from Japan; and
* ''
Pseudotrillium rivale'', newly segregated, with spotted petals, from the Siskiyou Mountains of California and Oregon.
Within Melanthiaceae, these are consolidated into three genera;
;Parideae
* ''
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
''
L. (including ''Daiswa'' and ''Kinugasa'')
* ''
Pseudotrillium''
S.B.Farmer
* ''
Trillium''
L. (including ''Trillidium'')
Image:Paris quadrifolia 050505.jpg, ''Paris quadrifolia
''Paris quadrifolia'', the herb Paris or true lover's knot, is a species of flowering plant in the family Melanthiaceae. It occurs in temperate and cool areas throughout Eurasia, from Spain to Yakutia, and from Iceland to Mongolia. It prefers ...
'' in flower
Image:Paris-quadrifolia(vonOben).jpg, ''Paris quadrifolia'' in fruit
Image:Paris quadrifolia Sturm45.jpg, ''Paris quadrifolia'' from Sturm (1796)
Image:Trilliumgrand.jpg, ''Trillium grandiflorum''
Image:Trillium_luteum1.jpg, ''Trillium luteum''
Image:Trillium_luteum2.jpg, ''Trillium luteum''
Image:Trillium_ovatum_1290.JPG, ''Trillium ovatum''
Image:Trillium tschonoskii s2.jpg, ''Trillium tschonoskii''
External links
Susan Farmer's web pages on Trilliaceae and the genus ''Trillium''*
ttp://delta-intkey.com/angio/www/trilliac.htm Trilliaceaein L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards).
The families of flowering plants descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval.'' Version: 3 May 2006. http://delta-intkey.com.
links at CSDL, Texashistory and placement of taxa in Trilliaceae sensu
APG II]
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1858126
Historically recognized angiosperm families