Melanthiaceae

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) 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.

Genera

• Amianthium
• Chamaelirium
• Chionographis
• Daiswa
• Helonias
• Heloniopsis
• Kinugasa
• Melanthium
• Paris
• Pseudotrillium
• Schoenocaulon
• Stenanthium
• Trillidium
• Trillium
• Veratrum
• Xerophyllum
• Ypsilandra
• Zigadenus

External link

Susan Farmer's web pages on Trilliaceae and the genus Trillium