Colchicaceae

Colchicaceae
File:Colchicum autumnale.jpg
Colchicum autumnale
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
Order:	Liliales
Family:	Colchicaceae DC.
Genera
See text

Colchicaceae is a family of flowering plants.

The APG III system, of 2009 (unchanged from the APG systems, of 1998 and 2003), does recognize such a family and places it in the order Liliales, in the clade monocots, and regards the family as including some two hundred species of herbaceous perennials with rhizomes or corms.

The Dahlgren system and the Thorne system (1992) also recognized this family, and placed it in order Liliales in superorder Lilianae in subclass Liliidae (monocotyledons) of class Magnoliopsida (angiosperms).

Genera

The following is an alphabetic list of genera usually included in this family :

3

The phylogenetic classification of Vinnersten & Manning circumscribes the family as follows.

• tribe Burchardieae
  • Burchardia R.Br.
• tribe Uvularieae
  • Disporum Salisb. (excluding the North American species to the genus Prosartes D.Don, now in the family Liliaceae, Liliales)
  • Uvularia L.
• tribe Tripladenieae
  • Kuntheria Conran & Clifford
  • Schelhammera R.Br.
  • Tripladenia D.Don
• tribe Iphigenieae
  • Camptorrhiza E.Phillips
  • Iphigenia Kunth
• tribe Anguillarieae
  • Baeometra Salisb.
  • Wurmbea Thunb. (including Neodregea C.H.Wright and Onixotis Raf.)
• tribe Colchiceae
  • Colchicum L. (including Androcymbium Willd., Bulbocodium L. and Merendera Ramond)
  • Gloriosa L. (including Littonia Hook.)
  • Hexacyrtis Dinter
  • Ornithoglossum Salisb.
  • Sandersonia Hook.

The genus Petermannia F.Muell. is excluded from this family and placed in its own family Petermanniaceae, Liliales. The former controversy regarding the inclusion of Androcymbium in Colchicum has now been resolved in favor of the 2007 classification of Manning et al. who included Androcymbium in Colchicum. This is supported by molecular phylogenetic studies with dense species sampling (i.e. 41 species previously placed in Androcymbium and 96 species of Colchicum) that showed that the type species of Androcymbium, A. melanthioides (Colchicum melanthioides), is more closely related to species of Colchicum than it is to many species traditionally placed in Androcymbium.

Bibliography

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External links

• Colchicaceae, Uvulariaceae in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. Version: 9 March 2006. http://delta-intkey.com.
• NCBI Taxonomy Browser
• images at PlantSystematics.org
• links at CSDL, Texas