Alliaceae

Taxobox
name = Alliaceae

---

image_caption = "Allium ursinum"
image_width = 300px
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Liliopsida
ordo = Asparagales
familia = Alliaceae
familia_authority = Batsch ex Borkh.
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision = See text

Alliaceae is a family of herbaceous perennial flowering plants. They are monocots, part of order Asparagales. The family has been widely but not universally recognised; in the past, the plants involved were often treated as belonging to the family Liliaceae, and still are by some botanists.

The APG II system of 2003 recognises the family and places it in the order Asparagales in the clade monocots. APG II allows two options of the circumscription of the family:
* Alliaceae "sensu lato" ("in the wider sense"), including all the plants that were assigned to the families Agapanthaceae, Alliaceae and Amaryllidaceae in the 1998 APG.
* Alliaceae "sensu stricto" ("in the strict sense"), unchanged from the 1998 APG system, excluding the plants then forming the families Agapanthaceae and Amaryllidaceae.

Note that quite a few of the plants that were once included in family Alliaceae are assigned to the family Themidaceae by both APG and APG II.

The most important genus is "Allium", which includes several important food plants, including onions ("Allium cepa"), chives ("A. schoenoprasum"), garlic ("A. sativum" and "A. scordoprasum"), and leeks ("A. porrum").

Genera

The following genera are included in the Alliaceae "sensu stricto":

The genera "Androstephium", "Bessera", "Bloomeria", "Brodiaea", "Dandya", "Dichelostemma", "Milla", "Petronymphe", "Triteleia", and "Triteleiopsis" are now treated in the family Themidaceae.

References

Michael F. Fay and Mark W. Chase. 1996. Resurrection of Themidaceae for the Brodiaea alliance, and Recircumscription of Alliaceae, Amaryllidaceae and Agapanthoideae. "Taxon" 45: 441-451 ( [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0040-0262(199608)45%3A3%3C441%3AROTFTB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M#abstract abstract] )

External links

* [http://www.topwalks.net/plants/generos/alliaceae.htm Alliaceae]
* [http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/orders/asparagalesweb.htm#Alliaceae Alliaceae] in Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). [http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb Angiosperm Phylogeny Website] . Version 7, May 2006.
* [http://delta-intkey.com/angio/www/alliacea.htm Alliaceae] [sensu lato] in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). [http://delta-intkey.com/angio/ "The families of flowering plants"]
* [http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=10507 Liliaceae in "Flora of North America"]
* [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=Tree&id=40553&lvl=3&lin=f&keep=1&srchmode=1&unlock NCBI Taxonomy Browser] [Alliaceae sensu stricto]
* [http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/cgi/gateway_family?fam=Alliaceae links at CSDL, Texas]