Hemerocallidaceae

Noun

A family of flowering plants that includes daylilies and New Zealand flax. The genus Hemerocallis was assigned its own family name in 1982 by Dahlgren and Clifford. (See pp. 36-39, "Biosystematics," by Barr Daylily Journal, vol. 42, no. 2, fall 1987. Not all authorities agree, and some place the genus in the family Asparagales. In the family, pedicels are articulated, septal nectaries infralocular, and the ovary superior. Other details: Habit various; flavonols, napthoquinones, saponins +; roots often swollen; mucilage cells 0; raphides 0; cuticular wax rodlets parallel; leaves (spirally) 2-ranked, conduplicate to flat-conduplicate, keeled, the keel unifacial, sheath closed; inflorescence various, (bracteoles lateral); pedicel usu. articulated; (flowers monosymmetric, median tepal of outer whorl adaxial - Hemerocallis), T tube short (1/2 way - Hemerocallis; 0), filaments often ornamented, (anthers centrifixed), pollen usu. trichotomosulcate, infra-locular septal nectaries +, 1-many tenuinucellate ovules/carpel, nucellar cap +, chalazal nucellus well developed; endosperm usu. helobial, stigma dry (wet); fruit also a berry (nut, schizocarp); seeds ovoid, (with strophiole/aril); endosperm hemicellulosic, embryo also short; n = 4 [Agrostocrinum], 8, 9, 11, 12, chromosomes 0.8-10 µm long; (cotyledon not photosynthetic - Dianella), epicotyl long or not (hypocotyl 0; collar +), primary root well developed, branched or not.