LILIACEAE - China

Chen Xinqi ( 陈 心 启 Chen Sing-chi); Michael G. Gilbert 1Herbs, shrubs, or trees, usually with dense rosettes of very fleshy leaves. Stems often very reduced but sometimes well developedor even with secondary thickening. Leaves rosulate, amplexicaul, thick, succulent, always glabrous, margin mostly hard dentateor spiny, apex sharply pointed. Inflorescence a subterminal, ascending to erect raceme, often branched; peduncle usually well developed;bracts persistent, scarious. Pedicel usually much shorter than perianth. Perianth usually red, orange, or yellow, rarely greenishor whitish, cylindric to 3-sided, sometimes slightly curved or with swollen base; segments usually connate to form a tube, very rarelynearly free, usually glabrous, apex spreading. Stamens 6, inserted at base of perianth tube, usually exserted; filaments subulate; anthersdorsifixed. Ovary 3-loculed; ovules many per locule. Style filiform; stigma small. Fruit a loculicidal capsule. Seeds 3-angled orflattened, often winged.Between 350 and 400 species: S and tropical Africa (including Madagascar), tropical Arabia; one species (introduced) in China.1. Aloe vera (Linnaeus) N. L. Burman, Fl. Indica, 83. 1768.芦 荟 lu huiAloe perfoliata Linnaeus var. vera Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1:320. 1753; A. barbadensis Miller var. chinensis Haworth; A.chinensis (Haworth) Baker; A. vera var. chinensis (Haworth) A.Berger.Herbs succulent. Stems short, suckering freely to formdense clumps. Leaves sub-basal, slightly distichous in seedlingsand new shoots, erect, pale green, sometimes with pale spots invery young plants, linear-lanceolate, 15–35(–50) × 4–5(–7) cm,margin sparsely spiny-dentate, apex 2- or 3-dentate-pointed.Inflorescence erect, 60–90 cm; peduncle to 2 cm thick; raceme30–40 × 5–6 cm, sometimes with 1 or 2 ascending branches,numerous flowered; bracts whitish, broadly lanceolate, ca. 10 ×5–6 mm, veins 5–7, apex acute. Flowers reflexed; pedicel ca.30. DIANELLA Lamarck, Encycl. 2: 276. 1786.山 菅 属 shan jian shuChen Xinqi ( 陈 心 启 Chen Sing-chi); Minoru N. Tamura1/2 as long as bract. Perianth pale yellow mottled with red,slightly ventricose, 2.5(–3) cm, outer lobes free for ca. 1.8 cm,slightly recurved at apex. Stamens exserted by 4–5 mm. Styleconspicuously exserted. 2n = 14*.Cultivated for medicinal uses, and perhaps naturalized in the hot,dry Yuan Jiang valley in S Yunnan [probably originated in Mediterraneanregion; widely cultivated and occasionally naturalized elsewhere].Chinese material is smaller in all parts than typical Aloe vera, butnot strikingly so, and there does not seem adequate reason to treat it asanything other than a cultivar of the very widely grown species. Theorigins ofA. vera are obscured by the long history of cultivation and theabsence of definite wild populations. Aloe indica Royle (Ill. Bot. Himal.Mts. 1: 390. 1840), from N India, Nepal, and Thailand, is closelyrelated, apparently differing only in having reddish flowers. Flowercolor is variable in many species of Aloe and it is likely that this speciesis conspecific with A. vera. All other related taxa are native to NEtropical Africa and Arabia.Herbs perennial, sometimes subshrubby, evergreen. Rhizome generally branched, stout. Stem simple or branched. Leaves subbasal,distichous, basally often equitant, grasslike,rigid, midvein raised abaxially. Scape usually relatively tall,to 2 m, with few linearlanceolatecauline leaves and a terminal panicle. Panicle laxly branched, usually large, with several to many racemes or smallerpanicles; bracts rather small. Flowers usually nodding, rather small; pedicel articulate apically. Tepals 6, free, 3–7-veined. Stamens 6,inserted at base of tepals; filaments thickened; anthers basifixed, dehiscing by terminal pores. Ovary 3-loculed; ovules 4–8 perlocule. Style slender; stigma small. Fruit a berry. Seeds black, often flattened.About 20 species: mainly in tropical Asia, also in Africa (Madagascar), Australia, and Pacific Islands; one species in China.Although Clifford et al. (in Kubitzki, Fam. Gen. Vasc. Pl. 3: 251. 1998) placed Dianella in the Hemerocallidaceae, Wu Zhengyi (editor’s note)believes it should be treated in the segregate family Phormiaceae. Takhtajan (Diversity Classific. Fl. Pl. 512. 1997) recognized Phormiaceae but placedDianella in the Dianellaceae.1. Dianella ensifolia (Linnaeus) Redouté, Liliac. 1: t. 1. 1802.山 菅 shan jianDracaena ensifolia Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, 2: 246;Mant. Pl. 1: 63. 1767; Dianella ensifolia f. albiflora Tang S.Liu & S. S. Ying; D. ensifolia f. racemulifera (Schlitter) TangS. Liu & S. S. Ying; D. nemorosa Lamarck; D. nemorosa f.racemulifera Schlitter.Rhizome creeping, 5–8 mm thick. Leaves sword-shaped,gradually narrowed at both ends, 30–80 × 1–2.5 cm, leathery,midvein abaxially and margin usually scabrous, apex obtuse.Scape 1–2 m, with several bractlike stem leaves 3–8 cm.Panicle laxly branched, 10–40 cm, usually with flowers bornedistally. Pedicel 0.7–2 cm, usually arcuate. Tepals spreading,white, greenish white, yellowish, or bluish purple, linearlanceolateto narrowly oblong, 6–7 × 3–3.5 mm. Stamensshorter than tepals; filaments geniculate near middle, dilateddistally. Style ca. 6 mm. Berries deep blue, subglobose, ca. 6mm in diam., 5- or 6-seeded. Fl. and fr. Mar–Aug. 2n = 32*.Forests, grassy slopes; near sea level to 1700 m. Fujian, Guangdong,Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan[Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, S Japan, Laos, Ma-1 Missouri Botanical Garden, c/o Department of Botany, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, England, United Kingdom.