Melanthiaceae

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(Redirected from Trilliaceae)

{{Taxobox | color = lightgreen | name = Melanthiaceae | image = Zigadenus.jpg | image_width = 250px | image_caption = Star Lily (Zigadenus) | regnum = Plantae | divisio = Magnoliophyta | classis = Liliopsida | ordo = Liliales | familia = Melanthiaceae | familia_authority = Batsch | subdivision_ranks = Genera | subdivision = See text. }}

The family Melanthiaceae (formerly Trilliaceae) consists of a number of genera petaloid, lilioid monocot flowering plants. Many authors used to consider it as a tribe within the family Liliaceae, although more recent scholarship designates the Melanthiaceae a separate family of order Liliales.

To paraphrase what Steven Elliott wrote of the genus Trillium in 1817, "this family is an interesting one. A whorl of leaves at the summit of a stem, supporting a single flower, it contains and conceals many species." Its taxonomy has always been controversial. A recent treatment (Farmer and Schilling 2002) states that the family, which exhibits an arcto-tertiary distribution, is comprised of 6 genera. Three exhibit a wide distribution: Paris from Iceland to Japan, Daiswa from eastern Asia, and Trillium from North America and eastern Asia, and three are monotypic, endemic genera: Trillidium, with a tepaloid inflorescence, from the Himalaya Mountains; Kinugasa, with petaloid sepals, from Japan; and the newly described Pseudotrillium, with spotted petals, from the Pacific Northwest.

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