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Liliaceae

See list of 8 genera in this family
  • 1a. Tepals white and spotted with red or purple on the adaxial surface, the outer 3 prominently saccate at the base; each style apically bifid, maculate
  • 1b. Tepals variously colored, but not white with dark spots, not prominently saccate; styles neither bifid near apex nor spotted
    • 2a. Tepals green-yellow, green-white, or pink (red-purple to purple in the rare hybrid Streptopus ×‌oreopolus), 0.6–1.6 cm long; fruit a berry; stems arising from rhizomes 
(the rhizomes tuberous in Medeola)
      • 3a. Styles 3, distinct; tepals recurved from near the base; leaves borne on an aerial 
stem in 1 or 2 whorls
      • 3b. Style 1, the stigma obscurely lobed to 3-parted; tepals spreading or recurving from near the middle; leaves all basal or alternate
        • 4a. Flowers in an umbel at the summit of a scape, with green-yellow tepals; leaves all basal; fruit a blue berry
        • 4b. Flowers solitary or paired in the axils of foliage leaves, with green-white, 
pink, or red-purple to purple tepals; leaves borne alternately on an aerial stem; 
fruit a red berry
    • 2b. Tepals yellow, orange, red or white, (1.3–) 1.5–10 cm long; fruit a capsule; stems arising from bulbs or corms
      • 5a. Leaves appearing all basal (actually borne on a slender, mainly subterranean stem), usually mottled with lighter markings; capsules 12–15 mm tall (up to 22 mm tall in 
the naturalized E. albidum); spring ephemerals, the above-ground portions of the plant usually senescing by July
      • 5b. Leaves borne on the stem ( Gagea with both basal and stem leaves), not mottled; capsules 15–77 mm tall (shorter in Gagea, but that species usually with 3–5 flowers 
per inflorescence); plants persisting through the summer in typical years

Show All Couplets

 Show photos of:   Each photo represents one genus in this family.