Liliaceae family

 This family is commonly known as the Lily family. It is a characteristic representative of monocotyledonous plants. It includes about 250 genera and 4000 species, distributed worldwide. About 200 species are available in India. 

Vegetative Characters Habit: Plants mostly herbs with perennating rhizome or bulb, a few climbers (Asparagus and Smilax), Yucca and Aloe are xerophytic. 

Root: Fibrous, tuberous in Asparagus. Stem: Solid or fistular, underground rhizome, bulb or corm, aerial-climbing or erect and may have phylloclades. Leaves: Radical or cauline, exstipulate, alternate, opposite or whorled, sessile or petiolate with sheathing base, venation parallel, reticulate in Smilax. In Asparagus, the leaves are reduced to minute scales (cladode). 

Allium cepa 

Floral Characters

 Inflorescence: It is variable, generally solitary axillary, panicled raceme or cymose umbel. Flower: Pedicellate, actinomorphic or zygomorphic, hermaphrodite or unisexual in Smilax and Ruscus, hypogynous, complete, rarely incomplete, trimerous rarely bi-or tetramerous; 

Perianth: Six in two whorls, scarious or membranous, polyphyllous or gamophyllous, petaloid or sepaloid, valvate aestivation. 

Androecium: Stamens six arranged in two whorls, polyandrous, may be epiphyllous and opposite to perianth lobes, filament long, anther dithecous, introrse or extrorse, versatile or basifixed.

 Gynoecium: Tricarpellary, syncarpous, ovary superior, trilocular, axile placentation, style simple, stigma trilobed.

 Fruit: Berry or capsule. Seed: Endospermic.

Economic Importance 1. Bulbs of onion (Allium cepa), garlic (A. sativum) are used as flavouring agents and food. Young shoots and tubers of Asparagus are used as food. 2. Roots of Smilax yield sarsaparilla, which is used as blood purifier. 3. Garlic (Allium sativum) has antiseptic and bactericidal characters. 4. Onion (Allium cepa) is useful in constipation and diarrhoea. 5. Aloin, a purgative is obtained from Aloe vera; rat poison from Urginea and Scilla. 6. The dried corms of Colchicum autumnale yield colchicine, which is used in cytology for doubling the number of chromosomes (polyploidy). 7. Asparagus, Dracaena, Aloe, Ruscus, Smilax, lilies and tulips are used as ornamentals. 8. Fibres are obtained from the leaves of Yucca gloriosa and Phormium tenax.