Alliaceae

Alliaceae, or the Onion family, once included in Liliaceae or Amaryllidaceae, consists of bulbous or rhizomatous perennials. The rootstock and leaves contain allylic sulfides responsible for the smell of garlic or onion when crushed or bruised. The rootstock is usually a bulb with membranous or fibrous outer tunics or sometimes a short rhizome. The straplike or tubular leaves are arranged spirally. Flowers are enclosed by large papery bracts in an umbel on a leafless stem. The ovary is three chambered and superior and flowers have six tepals and stamens. The fruit is a capsule with the seeds usually black, wedge-shaped or ovoid to subglobose. Plants in this family occur mostly in South America, with Allium in the Northern Hemisphere and Tulbaghia in Southern Africa. All the former cormous genera that were once in this family from Mexico and Western North America have been moved to Themidaceae. In 2003 the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group recommending lumping some of the separate monocot families such as Amaryllidaceae and Agapanthaceae "back" into the Alliaceae. In the most current system, the Amaryllidaceae includes Alliaceae and Agapanthaceae.

Genera having wiki pages from this family are: Allium, Gethyum, Ipheion, Leucocoryne, Nectaroscordum, Nothoscordum, Pabellonia (sometimes considered to be included in Leuocoryne), Prototulbaghia, Tristagma, Tulbaghia.

Genera in the Themidaceae family with wiki pages are: Androstephium, Bessera, Behria, Bloomeria, Brodiaea, Dandya, Dichelostemma, Dipterostemon,Jaimehintonia, Milla, Muilla, Petronymphe, Triteleia, and Triteleiopsis.


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