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Agapanthoideae

(Subfamily)

Overview

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A Subfamily in the Kingdom Plantae.

Photos

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Taxonomy

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The Subfamily Agapanthoideae is a member of the Family Alliaceae. Here is the complete "parentage" of Agapanthoideae:

The Subfamily Agapanthoideae is further organized into finer groupings including:

Genera

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Agapanthus

Agapanthus ("Lily of the Nile") is a genus of flower plants with six to ten species depending on how the different species are classified. They are all perennial plants native to South Africa. They have been placed either in the family Alliaceae, or separated into their own monogeneric family Agapanthaceae (e.g. Indices Nominum Supragenericorum Plantarum Vascularium). [more]

Agastache

Herbs tall perennials. Leaves petiolate, margin dentate. Verticillasters many flowered, in terminal spikes. Calyx tubular-obconical, straight, 15-veined, not hairy annulate inside, throat oblique. Corolla tube straight, gradually dilated to throat, as long as to slightly longer than calyx, not hairy annulate inside, 2-lipped; upper lip straight, 2-lobed; lower lip spreading, 3-lobed, middle lobe widest, spreading, base not clawed, margin undulate, lateral lobes straight. Stamens 4, fertile, much exserted, posterior 2 longer and inclined forward, anterior 2 erect-ascending; anther cells 2, initially almost parallel, later ± divergent. Style subequally 2-cleft. Nutlets smooth, apex hairy.[1] [more]

Aglaonema

Aglaonema is a genus of about 40 species of in the family Araceae, native to the tropical swamps and rainforests of southeastern Asia from Bangladesh east to the Philippines and north to southern China. No common name is widely used, though they are sometimes called "Chinese evergreen". [more]

Ajania

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Ajuga

Plants annual, biennial or perennial, herbaceous, rarely shrubs. Leaves simple; leaf blade papery, margin dentate to incised, rarely subentire. Verticillasters 2- to many flowered, in false spikes; floral leaves similar to stem leaves or gradually reduced to bracts, rarely dissimilar, larger than stem leaves. Flowers subsessile. Calyx ovoid to globose, campanulate to funnelform, 10-veined, sometimes with inconspicuous accessory veins; teeth 5, slightly irregular. Corolla purple to blue, rarely yellow or white, 2-lipped, often persistent in fruit; tube straight to slightly curved, base slightly bent/swollen; throat slightly dilated, villous annulate, rarely glabrous inside; upper lip straight, entire to 2-lobed; lower lip elongate, 3-lobed, with middle lobe obcordate to nearly flabellate and lateral lobes oblong. Stamens 4, didynamous, exserted from upper lip, involute in bud, anterior 2 longer; filaments straight to slightly curved; anther cells 2, apically confluent. Style subequally 2-cleft, lobes subulate. Nutlets obovoid, triquetrous, netted on back, lateral-ventral side with an areole 1/2-2/3 its length, with an elaiosome.[2] [more]

Akebia

Vines, twining. Leaves palmately compound; leaflets 3-5, articulate at base of blade and at base of petiolule. Inflorescences racemose, pistillate flowers proximal to staminate flowers in each raceme. Flowers dimorphic: pistillate flowers larger and longer pediceled than staminate flowers; sepals mostly brownish to purplish. Staminate flowers: pistillodes present. Pistillate flowers: pistils (3-) -8(-15) ; placentation laminar; staminodes present. Fruits follicles, fleshy, dehiscent along adaxial suture. Seeds 100-several hundred. x = 16.[3] [more]

Albuca

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Alcea

Herbs annual, biennial, or perennial, usually erect, unbranched, most parts stellate pubescent, sometimes mixed with long simple hairs. Leaves long petiolate; leaf blade ovate to suborbicular, angled, weakly lobed, or deeply palmatipartite, margin crenate or dentate, apex acute to obtuse. Flowers axillary, solitary or fascicled, often arranged into terminal racemes. Epicalyx lobes 6 or 7, basally connate. Calyx 5-lobed, ± pubescent. Petals pink, white, purple, or yellow, usually more than 3 cm wide, apex notched. Staminal column glabrous with anthers clustered at apex; anthers yellow and compact. Ovary 15- or more loculed; ovules 1 per locule, erect; styles as many as locules; stigmas decurrent, filiform. Fruit a schizocarp, disk-shaped, fruit axis as long as or shorter than carpels; mericarps more than 15, laterally compressed and circular with a prominent ventral notch, glabrous or pubescent, 2-celled, proximal cell 1-seeded, distal cell sterile. Seed glabrous or pustulose.[4] [more]

Alchemilla

Herbs perennial (rarely annual), with woody rhizome. Stems decumbent to erect. Leaves stipulate, long petiolate; stipules adnate to sheathing petiole; leaf blade simple, ± orbicular, margin lobed, digitate, or palmately parted. Inflorescences usually dense corymbs, rarely lax cymes or a solitary flower, ebracteate. Flowers very small, bisexual. Hypanthium urceolate, persistent, with constricted throat. Sepals 4(or 5), valvate; epicalyx segments 4(or 5), alternating with sepals. Petals absent. Disk lining hypanthium, margin thickened. Stamens (1-) 4; filaments free, short. Carpel 1(-4), sessile or substipitate, free; ovule ascending from base of locule; style basal or adaxial, filiform, glabrous; stigma capitellate. Achene 1(-4), enclosed in membranous hypanthium. Seed basal; testa membranous; cotyledons cylindric-obovoid. x = 8.[5] [more]

Allium

Herbs, perennial, scapose, from tunicate bulbs, with onion odor and taste. Bulbs solitary or clustered, dividing at base, or on rhizomes, reforming annually; outer coats generally brown or gray, smooth, fibrous, or with cellular reticulation (generally important in identification) ; inner coats membranous. Leaves generally withering from tip by anthesis, usually persistent, 1-12, basal; blade usually linear, terete, channeled, or flat (carinate in A. sativum, A. praecox, A. tuberosum, A. rotundum, A. neapolitanum, A. triquetrum, A. unifolium, and A. lacunosum), straight or ± falcate (coiled or circinate in A. nevadense and A. atrorubens), broader in A. victorialis and A. tricoccum, not petiolate (except in A. tricoccum and A. victorialis) . Scape usually persistent, terete or flattened. Inflorescences umbellate, flowering centripetally (centrifugally in A. schoenoprasum), sometimes replaced totally or partially by bulbils, subtended by spathe bracts; bracts conspicuous, ± fused, usually 3+-veined, equaling pedicel except in some introduced species, membranous. Flowers erect (pendent in A. triquetrum) ; tepals 6, in 2 similar whorls, ± distinct, petallike, usually becoming becoming dry and persisting; stamens 6, epipetalous; filaments in all but 1 native species broad at base, fused into ring (some introduced species and A. victorialis appendaged), linear, generally glabrous (A. rotundum and A. hoffmanii papillose to ciliate proximally) ; anthers and pollen variously colored; ovary superior, 3-lobed, sometimes crested with processes, 3-locular, usually 2 ovules per locule (6-8 in A. nigrum), crest processes 3 or 6, smooth except in A. haematochiton, A. sharsmithiae, and A. lacunosum; style 1; stigma capitate to ± 3-lobed; pedicel erect or spreading (lax in A. triquetrum) . Fruits capsular, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds black, obovoid, finely cellular-reticulate, cells smooth or minutely roughened, with 1-8 papillae, without caruncle except in A. triquetrum. x = 7, 8, 9.[6] [more]

Alniphyllum

Trees, deciduous. Leaves alternate; stipules absent; leaf blade margin serrate. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, racemes or panicles; bracteoles small. Pedicel jointed. Flowers bisexual. Calyx tube cup-shaped, 5-toothed. Corolla campanulate; lobes 5, imbricate. Stamens 10, 5 long and 5 short; filaments broad and flattened, mostly connate into a broad tube and adnate to corolla; anthers oblong. Ovary superior, 5-locular; ovules 8--10 per locule, 2 series in central axis. Style linear, slender; stigma obscurely 5-lobed. Fruit capsular, loculicidally dehiscent into 5 valves, exocarp slightly fleshy. Seeds with irregularly membranous wings at each end; embryo straight.[7] [more]

Alnus

Trees or shrubs, to 35 m; trunks usually several, branching excurrent to deliquescent. Bark of trunks and branches light gray to dark brown, thin, smooth, close; lenticels often present, pale, prominent, sometimes horizontally expanded. Wood nearly white, turning reddish upon exposure to air, moderately light and soft, texture fine. Branches, branchlets, and twigs nearly 2-ranked to diffuse; young twigs uniform or ( Alnus subg. Alnobetula ) differentiated into long and short shoots. Winter buds stipitate (nearly sessile in Alnus subg. Alnobetula ), narrowly to broadly ovoid or ellipsoid, terete, apex acute to rounded; scales 2--3, valvate, or ( Alnus subg. Alnobetula ) several, imbricate, smooth, or ( Alnus subg. Clethropsis ) sometimes none. Leaves borne on long or short shoots, 3-ranked to nearly 2-ranked. Leaf blade ovate to elliptic or obovate, thin to leathery, base variable, cuneate to rounded, margins doubly serrate, serrate, serrulate, or nearly entire, apex variable, acute to obtuse or acuminate to rounded; surfaces glabrous to tomentose, abaxially sometimes resinous-glandular. Inflorescences: staminate catkins lateral, in racemose clusters or ( Alnus subg. Clethropsis ) solitary, formed ( Alnus subg. Alnus and Clethropsis ) during previous growing season and exposed or enclosed in buds during winter, or ( Alnus subg. Clethropsis ) formed and expanding during same growing season, expanding before or with leaves; pistillate catkins proximal to staminate catkins, solitary or in relatively small racemose clusters, erect to nearly pendulous, ovoid to ellipsoid, firm; scales and flowers crowded, developing and maturing at same time as staminate catkins. Staminate flowers in catkins, 3 per scale; stamens (3--) 4(--6) ; anthers and filaments undivided. Pistillate flowers usually 2 per scale. Infructescences erect or pendulous; scales persistent long after release of fruits, with 5 lobes, greatly thickened, woody. Fruits tiny samaras, lateral wings 2, leathery or membranaceous, reduced or essentially absent in some species. x = 7.[8] [more]

Alocasia

Characters as those of Colocasia but with the following differences: Plants with well developed elongated rootstocks, basal lobes of leaves acute and basal placentation. Ovules and seeds few.[9] [more]

Aloe

Plants succulent, shrubby or arborescent, scapose. Stems erect, clambering or ascending, branched or not. Leaves succulent, crowded, often rosulate or distichous; blade margins spiny-toothed or entire. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, paniculate to more often racemose, dense, bracteate. Flowers usually nodding; perianth red to yellow; tepals connate basally to almost entirely into tube; stamens 3 or 6; style slender; pedicel not articulate. Capsules papery to woody. x = 7.[10] [more]

Alophia

Herbs, perennial, from tunicate, ovoid bulbs; tunic brown, dry, brittle, papery. Stems simple or branched. Leaves few, basal larger; blade pleated, linear-lanceolate. Inflorescences rhipidiate, few-flowered; spathes green, unequal, outer shorter than inner, apex acute. Flowers short-lived, ± nodding [sometimes drooping], actinomorphic; tepals spreading, distinct, blue to purple, clawed, unequal, outer whorl larger than [± equaling] inner, claw surface sometimes folded or pinched basally forming lobes that partly obscure nectary zone, often with band of nectar-bearing hairs; stamens closely appressed to style; filaments distinct [occasionally connate], usually weak, unable to support anthers; anthers fused lightly to style, fiddle-shaped; pollen sacs marginal, connective visible; style slender proximally, gradually widening and branched distally; branches fairly deeply divided into 2 recurved arms, arching over or between anthers, filiform, apically stigmatic. Capsules ovoid to oblong, cartilaginous, apex truncate. Seeds many, irregularly globose; seed coat brown. x = 7.[11] [more]

Alstroemeria

Herbs, perennial, from fascicles of fusiform tubers. Stems mostly simple; fertile stems to 1 m or more; sterile stems shorter, more leafy. Leaves alternate; petiole often twisted so as to invert leaf; blade parallel-veined, linear to ovate, margins entire. Inflorescences terminal, umbellate [or 1-flowered]. Flowers slightly zygomorphic; tepals 6, distinct, red, orange, purple, green, or white, frequently spotted, to 5 cm;