Amaryllidoideae

Amaryllidoideae (Amaryllidaceae s.s., amaryllids) is a subfamily of monocot flowering plants in the family Amaryllidaceae, order Asparagales. The most recent APG classification, APG III, takes a broad view of the Amaryllidaceae, which then has three subfamilies, one of which is Amaryllidoideae (the old family Amaryllidaceae), and the others are Allioideae (the old family Alliaceae) and Agapanthoideae (the old family Agapanthaceae). The subfamily consists of about seventy genera, with over eight hundred species, and a worldwide distribution. The Amaryllidoideae are herbaceous, perennial flowering plants, usually with bulbs (some are rhizomatous). Their fleshy leaves are arranged in two vertical columns, and their flowers are large. Most of them are bulbous geophytes and many have a long history of cultivation as ornamental plants. They are distinguished from the other two Amaryllidaceae subfamilies (Agapanthoideae and Allioideae) by their unique alkaloidal chemistry, inferior ovary, and hollow style. The name Amaryllis had been applied to a number of plants over the course of history. When Linnaeus formerly described the type genus Amaryllis, from which the family derives its name, in his Species Plantarum in 1753, there were nine species with this name. He placed Amaryllis in a grouping he referred to as Hexandria monogynia (i.e. six stamens and one pistil) containing 51 genera in all in his sexual classification scheme. These genera have been treated as either liliaceous or amaryllidaceaous (see Taxonomy of Liliaceae) over time. In 1763 Adanson placed them in 'Liliaceae' In 1789 de Jussieu placed Amaryllis and related genera within a division of Monocotyledons, using a modified form of Linnaeus' sexual classification but with the respective topography of stamens to carpels rather than just their numbers. The family Amaryllidaceae was named in 1805, by Jean Henri Jaume Saint-Hilaire. In 1810 Brown proposed that a subgroup of Liliaceae be distinguished on the basis of the position of the ovaries (inferior) and be referred to as Amaryllideae and in 1813 de Candolle described Liliacées Juss. and Amaryllidées Brown as two quite separate families. Samuel Frederick Gray's A natural arrangement of British plants (1821). grouped together a number of families having in common six equal stamens, a single style and a perianth that was simple and petaloid, within which he separated families by the characteristics of their fruit and seed, such as Amaryllideae, Liliaceae, Asphodeleae and Asparageae. John Lindley, in his An Introduction to the Natural System of Botany (1830) divided the 'Monocotyledonous Plants' into two tribes. He then further divided the Petaloidea (petaloid monocots), into 32 orders, including the Amaryllideae. He defined the latter as 'Hexapetaloideous bulbous hexandrous monocotyledons, with an inferior ovarium, a 6-parted perianthium with equitant sepals, and flat spongy seeds' and included Amaryllis, Phycella, Nerine, Vallota, and Calostemma. By 1846 Lindley had greatly expanded and refined the treatment of the monocots. He placed the Liliaceae within the Liliales, but saw it as a paraphyletic ('catch-all') family, being all Liliales not included in the other orders, hoping that the future would reveal some characteristic that would group them better. This kept the Liliaceae. separate from the Amaryllidaceae, which was divided into four tribes (with 68 genera), yet both his Amaryllidaceae and Liliaceae contained many genera that would eventually segregate to each other's contemporary orders (Liliales and Asparagales respectively). The Liliaceae would be reduced to a small 'core' represented by the tribe Tulipeae, while large groups such as Scilleae and Asparagae would become part of Asparagales either as part of the Amaryllidaceae or as separate families. Of the four tribes of the Amaryllidaceae, the Amaryllideae and Narcissea would remain as core amaryllids while the Agaveae would be part of Asparagaceae but the Alstroemeriae would become a family within the Liliales.