Aloeaceae (Family)

Overview

Asphodelaceae is the of a family of flowering plants. Not all taxonomists recognize Asphodelaceae as a family and the circumscription of the family has varied over time.

The APG II system, of 2003, does not recognize this family, but allows it to be segregated from the family Xanthorrhoeaceae, as an optional segregate. In so far as APG II accepts this family it is placed in the order Asparagales, in the clade monocots. This is a slight change from the APG system, of 1998, which did accept such a family.

According to the AP-website, the family now includes over a dozen genera, totalling some eight hundred species including the familiar genus Aloe (also spelled Alo�). Genera in the Asphodelaceae in Africa, the Mediterranean basin and Central Asia, with one genus (Bulbinella) present in New Zealand. The greatest diversity occurs in South Africa.

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Asphodelaceae

Eremurus robustus

A listing of genera

Aloe
Asphodeline
Asphodelus
Bulbine
Bulbinella
Eremurus
Gasteria
Haworthia
Jodrellia
Kniphofia
Lomatophyllum
Poellnitzia
Simethis
Trachyandra

Photos

Taxonomy

Genera

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.^[1] [more]

Aloinopsis

Aloinopsis is a relatively small genus of from South Africa, whose genus name stands for "similar to an Aloe". [more]

Eucryphia

Eucryphia is a small genus of or large shrubs of the Antarctic flora, native to the south temperate regions of South America and coastal eastern Australia. Traditionally placed in a family of their own, the Eucryphiaceae, more recent classifications place them in the Cunoniaceae. There are seven species, two in South America and five in Australia, and several named hybrids. They are mostly evergreen though one species (E. glutinosa) is usually deciduous. [more]

Gasteria

Gasteria is a of succulent plants native to South Africa. Closely-related genera include Aloe and Haworthia. The genus is named for its stomach-shaped flowers and is part of an expanded Asphodelaceae family. [more]

Glia

Glial cells, commonly called neuroglia or simply glia (Greek for "glue"), are non- cells that provide support and nutrition, maintain homeostasis, form myelin, and participate in signal transmission in the nervous system. In the human brain, glia are estimated to outnumber neurons by about 10 to 1. [more]

Haberlea

Haworthia

Haworthia is a genus of flowering plants within the family . They are small (typically 20 cm high) solitary or clump-forming and endemic to South Africa. Bayer (1976) recognized 68 species, with 41 subspecies, varieties and forms. Some species have firm, tough leaves, usually dark green in color, whereas other are soft and semi-translucent. [more]

Hypocalymma

Hypocalymma is a of evergreen shrubs in the myrtle family Myrtaceae. It currently contains 29 species, all of which occur in southern Western Australia. [more]

Indocalamus

Shrubby bamboos. Rhizomes leptomorph, with running underground stems. Culms pluricaespitose, nodding; internodes usually terete, usually with a dense, persistent, apical, yellow-brown tomentose to setaceous ring below nodes, rarely apically glabrous; wall thick; nodes usually flat, sometimes prominent. Branches usually solitary, nearly as thick as culms. Culm sheaths persistent, usually shorter than internodes, papery or nearly leathery; auricles usually developed; blade usually recurved, lanceolate. Leaf sheaths cylindrical, very thick, smooth. Leaves usually large relative to culm size, transverse veins distinct. Inflorescence largely ebracteate, terminal, a raceme or open panicle; branches usually subtended by tiny bracts. Spikelets several to many flowered, pedicellate. Rachilla articulate. Glumes 2 or 3, ovate or lanceolate; lemma oblong or lanceolate, nearly leathery; palea 2-keeled, shorter than lemma; lodicules 3. Stamens 3, long exserted; anthers yellow. Ovary ovoid; style 1, short; stigmas usually 2 (3 in I. wilsonii), plumose. Caryopsis dark brown at maturity. 2n = 48.^[2] [more]

Meconopsis

Perennial, often prickly, simple or rarely branched, often tall and robust herbs with yellow latex. Leaves entire or lobed, radical stalked, cauline sessile or subsessile. Inflorescence solitary, racemed, pseudo-racemed or panicled. Flowers often large, showy, blue, yellow or purplish-red. Sepals 2(-4), usually caducous, valvate. Petals 4 (often varying from 5-10), free, obovate to broadly ovate. Stamens many, multiseriate; filament filiform; anthers often oblong. Carpels many, fused, superior, with unilocular, ellipsoid to subglobose ovary; ovules many on parietal placentae projecting into the ovary; style distinct, often short; stigma rays 5-6, radiating and forming a globular mass over the ovary. Capsule ovoid, oblong, clavate or cylindrical, 1-celled, dehiscing by short slits at the apex or sometimes splitting almost to the base of the fruit. Seeds many, small, rugose.^[3] [more]

Ozothamnus

Ozothamnus is a of plants found in Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. [more]

Parahebe

Pleioblastus

Bamboo (�info) is a group of woody perennial evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Some of its members are giant bamboo, forming by far the largest members of the grass family. Bamboo is the fastest growing woody plant in the world. Their growth rate (up to .5-1 feet/day (1.5-2.0 inches/hr)) is due to a unique rhizome-dependent system, but is highly dependent on local soil and climate conditions. [more]

Aloeaceae