AMARYLLIDACEAE  

Deciduous bulbous herbs. Bulb 20-200 mm in diameter, subterranean or exposed; outer tunics parchment-like or cartilaginous, producing extensible fibres when torn. Leaves (2-)4-6(-20), present during or after flowering, distichous, suberect or appressed to the ground, often biflabellate, oblong to lingulate, smooth or adaxial surface macropapillate to bristly; margin usually raised, often fringed with short branched cilia. Inflorescence (3-)20-40(-80)-flowered, in a +/- hemispherical head, 50-80 mm in diameter; scape strongly compressed, solid, 30-600 mm long, abscissing at ground level for seed dispersal; spathe valves 2, oblong-lanceolate, leathery to papery. Flowers irregular, rarely almost regular, widely flared to irregularly funnel-shaped, pink, red or rarely white; pedicels radiating, at least in fruit, much longer than or rarely as long as perigone. Tepals connate basally into a short tube; segments narrowly to broadly oblong-lanceolate, recurved, usually plane. Stamens arising near tepal base, +/- declinate, rarely erect, +/- equal; filaments filiform, clustered, shortly connate basally, sometimes with lateral appendages at base; anthers dorsifixed; pollen bisulculate with spinulose exine. Ovary subglobose to conical; ovules 3-10 per locule, unitegmic; style filiform, declinate or rarely erect; stigma 3-lobed. Capsule large, inflated, loculicidal, sometimes tardily so, fusiform or trigonous and tapering basally, 3-ribbed, with conspicuous transverse veining. Seeds fleshy, ovoid, 5-10 mm in diameter, reddish green; testa stomatose; integument and embryo green. x = 11.

Deciduous bulbous herbs. Bulb usually with a neck of old leaf bases. Leaves 1-few, usually following flowering, slender, glabrous, sometimes spiralled. Inflorescence 1-flowered; scape reduced, mostly shorter than bulb-neck; spathe lanceolate, sheathing. Flower regular, white, fugacious; pedicel reduced. Tepals connate into a long, usually very slender, cylindric tube somewhat dilated towards mouth; segments subequal, ascending, much shorter than tube. Stamens in 2 series, 3 arising in perigone throat and 3 below throat; filaments filiform, short, free to base; anthers linear, basifixed in inner series, dorsifixed in outer series, +/- as long as filaments. Ovary enclosed within spathe and bulb-neck; ovules many per locule; style filiform; stigma apical, obscurely 3-lobed. Fruit indehiscent, clavate and succulent or ellipsoid with thin walls, rupturing irregularly. Seeds globose, dark or with a translucent outer layer; embryo green. x = 6.

Deciduous bulbous herbs. Bulb large, +/- 100 mm in diameter; outer tunics tough, parchment-like, producing extensible fibres when torn. Leaves 7-9, present after flowering, distichous, but appearing rosulate, lorate, spreading, with a distinct midrib, glabrous or pubescent. Inflorescence a 6-12(-16)-flowered cluster, up to 250 mm in diameter; scape stout, solid, 450-800 mm long, slightly compressed, erect and persistent in fruit; spathe valves 2, large, oblong-lanceolate, membranous. Flowers showy, irregular, trumpet-shaped, white to deep pink often with a cream throat; pedicels spreading, shorter than perigone at anthesis, elongating in fruit. Tepals broadly lanceolate, recurved distally. Stamens arising from perigone base, declinate, connivent, unequal; filaments filiform, connate basally; anthers dorsifixed, versatile, curved; pollen bisulculate with spinulose exine. Ovary subglobose; ovules +/- 8 per locule, unitegmic; style slender, declinate; stigma 3-lobed. Capsule large, ellipsoid, loculicidal, papery. Seeds fleshy, compressed-globose, +/- 15 mm in diameter, white to pink; embryo green. x = 11, 12.