Flora of North America species comparison

greenish with brown leaf scars, branching from older buds quite some distance proximal to apex, forming widely scattered colonies, 2–2.5 cm diam.

1–2-branched, solid, 3–9 dm.

aerial (or subterranean in Romulea), simple or branched, terete or variously compressed, angled or winged.

basal stiffly erect, blade yellow-green, lightly ribbed, 8–9 dm × 2–3 cm;

cauline 1–2, foliaceous, blade 1.2–2 dm, exceeding subtended flower.

basal and cauline, distichous;

proximal 2–3 sometimes membranous, not reaching much above ground;

others with open or closed sheaths, usually unifacial [bifacial or terete], oriented edgewise to the stem;

blade parallel-veined, plane or pleated, channeled.

1–2-flowered, branch units 1-flowered;

spathes lanceolate, subequal or unequal, apex acute;

outer foliaceous, 15–20 cm, usually exceeding flower;

inner 8–10 cm, herbaceous, with scarious margins.

umbellate, monochasial cymes (rhipidia), spikes, or solitary flowers;

rhipidia enclosed in 2, opposed, usually large, leafy to dry bracts (spathes);

flowers except for the first subtended by 1 floral bract;

spike flowers each subtended by 2, opposed bracts.

perianth blue to violet, rarely white;

floral tube funnelform, grooved in line with grooves of ovary, 2–3 cm;

sepals spreading horizontally, obovate to oval, 8–8.5 × 4 cm, claw greenish with prominent yellow midrib which is pubescent on each side at base, apex rounded;

petals erect or spreading-erect, oblanceolate to spatulate, 7–9 × 2 cm, claw veined with green;

ovary roundly triangular in cross section, with wide grooves at angles and concave sides, 2–3 cm;

style convex laterally from central reddish ridge, 3.5–5 cm, narrower than claw of sepals, crests erect, overlapping, semiovate to triangular, 1–5 cm, margins coarsely toothed;

stigmas 2-lobed, lobes triangular or rounded-deltoid, margins entire;

pedicel 2.5–3.5 cm.

usually pedicellate [± sessile];

perianth actinomorphic or zygomorphic, petaloid, with 2 equal or unequal whorls of 3 tepals each [1 whorl of 6];

tepals usually large, showy, distinct or connate in tube;

stamens 3 [2], inserted at base of outer tepals or in tube, symmetrically arranged or unilateral, arcuate [declinate];

filaments distinct or partly to completely connate, sometimes weak, unable to support anthers;

anthers with 2 pollen sacs, extrorse, occasionally latrorse, usually dehiscing longitudinally [rarely apically];

ovary inferior [superior in Tasmanian Isophysis], 3-locular [1-locular];

placentation axile [parietal];

ovules 2–few, anatropous;

style single, filiform at least proximally, usually 3-branched or 3-lobed, branches either filiform, distally expanded, sometimes each divided in distal 1/2, stigmatic toward apices, or branches thickened, or flattened, petaloid, stigmas then abaxial below apices.

capsular, loculicidal, rarely indehiscent, firm to cartilaginous, occasionally woody.

hexagonal in cross section, with 3 alternate sides plane, others with 2 rounded ridges with shallow groove between them, 2.5–3.5 × 2–2.5 cm.

in 2 rows per locule, light brown, D-shaped or irregularly rounded, 4–6 mm, corky.

globose to angular (prismatic) or discoid, sometimes broadly winged;

seed coat usually dry (rarely fleshy);

endosperm hard, with reserves of hemicellulose, oil, and protein;

embryo small.

= 44.