Slideshow image
Amaryllidaceae
Amaryllidaceae image
eugene jercinovic  
  • SW Field Guide
  • Web Links
Desert Research Learning Center, Botany Program

Amaryllidaceae is a family with 73 genera and 1,605 species worldwide. In the APG III circumscription this family includes the old families of Alliaceae, Amaryllidaceae, and what is thought to be a weakly sister clade Agapanthaceae. The latter is only found in South Africa, while the other two former families, now considered subfamilies, are worldwide. There are some shared chemical characteristics but they all share a scapose inflorescence, which is an umbellate cymose construction bearing a scarious spathe. 

Herbs from a bulb with contractile roots, sometimes with sulfurous smelling compounds and reduced stems. Leaves alternate, usually 2-ranked, basal, simple, flat to terete, entire with parallel venation and sheathing at base. Determinate inflorescence, of one or more contracted helicoid cymes, appearing as a umbel, sometimes reduced to a single flowe and subtended by a few spathelike bracts. Bisexual flowers, radial to bilateral, showy with a filiform bract, 6 tepals, distinct to connate, imbricate, corona sometimes present, 6 stamens, filaments sometimes adnate to the perianth, 3 connate carpels, inferior ovary with axile placentation, nectaries in septa of ovary. Fruit a loculicidal capsule or occasionally a berry, some have seed coat with phytomelan.

  • Encyclopedia of Life
  • W3Tropicos
  • USDA PLANTS Database
  • Flora of North America
  • International Plant Names Index
  • Google Search Engine
  • Google Images
  • BOLD Systems - Barcode of Life Data Systems
  • Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI)
  • NCBI - National Center for Biotechnology Information
Species within checklist: Nebraska
Allium acetabulum
Image of Allium acetabulum
Allium aridum
Image of Allium aridum
Allium bivalve
Image of Allium bivalve
Allium burdickii
Image of Allium burdickii
Allium canadense
Image of Allium canadense
Allium cernuum
Image of Allium cernuum
Allium continuum
Image of Allium continuum
Allium drummondii
Image of Allium drummondii
Allium fraseri
Image of Allium fraseri
Allium helleri
Image of Allium helleri
Allium lavandulare
Image of Allium lavandulare
Allium nuttallii
Image of Allium nuttallii
Allium perdulce
Image of Allium perdulce
Allium reticulatum
Image of Allium reticulatum
Allium sativum
Image of Allium sativum
Allium textile
Image of Allium textile
Allium tuberosum
Image of Allium tuberosum
Allium vineale
Image of Allium vineale
Nothoscordum bivalve
Image of Nothoscordum bivalve