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1 Plants with erect stems; leaves cauline. | |
2 Plant woody, a shrub or small tree. | |
4 Margins of leaves entire, not fraying; tepals < 2 cm long; leaves stiff and wiry (and < 5 mm wide), herbaceous, or fleshy. | |
7 Leaves 3-25 cm wide; inflorescence a panicle (or a spike in A. lophantha); leaf tip spinose; scale 25-130 dm tall; [exotics planted and rarely persistent or spreading usually on barrier islands, or natives of s. peninsular FL or s. TX]. | |
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1 Primary inflorescences of spikelets, these consisting of 1-2-many reduced florets, each subtended by 1-2 scales (and also enclosed in a sac or perigynium in Carex in CYPERACEAE), arrayed spirally or distichously, the spikelets then themselves arrayed in various dense or diffuse secondary or tertiary inflorescences; perianth absent, or reduced to chaff, scales, paddles, or bristles. | |
2 Leaf sheaths continuous, lacking a split or only irregularly split in age; leaves usually 3-ranked (sometimes reduced to a sheath with a small scale at the summit; stems triangular in ×-section (or roundish), usually with a pith; flowers spirally arrayed in the spikelet (or distichously arrayed, in e.g. Cyperus, Dulichium, Kyllinga); anthers basifixed | |
2 Leaf sheaths generally split lengthwise on the side opposite the leaf blade; leaves usually 2-ranked; stems round or flattened in ×-section, usually hollow; flowers distichously arrayed in the spikelet; anthers versatile | |
1 Primary inflorescences of dense spikes, spadices, heads, glomerules, or a compound corymb of helicoid cymes; perianth present, often very small and variously colored. | |
4 Inflorescence a very densely flowered spike (spadix), appearing lateral, 1 per plant; fresh plant strongly aromatic | |
4 Inflorescence either more diffuse, 1 or several per plant, or terminal and cone-like; fresh plant not aromatic. | |
5 Inflorescence brownish or tan, spherical, ovoid, or cylindrical, with numerous scale-like bracts arrayed in a cone; flowers individually conspicuous, a single yellow (to white) flower at a time emerging from each of the scales | |
7 Inflorescence or flower groups subtended by well-developed, green or scarious spathaceous bracts; inflorescence either a fan-shaped pair of cymes, or seemingly racemose, or solitary | |
7 Inflorescence or flower groups not subtended by spathes (though individual flowers may be subtended by small green bracts); inflorescence a raceme, panicle, or corymb. | |
8 Inflorescence a corymb of helicoid cymes; corolla yellow, densely tomentose; roots bright red (Lachnanthes) or white to brown (Lophiola). | |
9 Stamens 3, longer than the (ascending) tepals inner 3 tepals > 2 mm longer than the outer 3 tepals; rhizomes and roots of fresh plants bright red | |
9 Stamens 6, shorter than the (recurved) tepals; inner 3 and outer 3 tepals equal in length; rhizomes at roots of fresh plants white to brown | |
8 Inflorescence a terminal raceme (the flowers attached to the rachis in groups of 3 or more in Triantha in TOFIELDIACEAE); corolla white, cream, or yellow, glabrous; roots white or brown. | |
11 Inflorescence either a linear spike, terminal, the thicker female portion below, the thinner male portion above, or an ovoid, hemispheric, spherical head or glomerule, 1 or several per plant | |
12 Inflorescence a linear spike, terminal, the thicker female portion below, the thinner male portion above | |
13 Flowers in a single head terminating an elongate scape; leaves basal (often with 1-2 much smaller leaves or bladeless sheaths on the lower part of the scape); inflorescence white, tan, pale yellow, gray, or blackish, the head usually as broad as or broader than long, involucrate | |
13 Flowers in multiple heads, not scapose; leaves basal and usually also prominently cauline; inflorescence green, tan, brown, or reddish, the head spherical, not involucrate. | |
14 Flowers unisexual, the male flowers in a terminal head, the female flowers in heads below the male along a usually zigzag stem | |
16 Leaves (at least the larger) > 25 mm long, linear or narrowly lanceolate; leaves basal, basally disposed (or rarely mostly or entirely cauline). | |
22 Inflorescence or flower groups subtended by well-developed, green or scarious spathaceous bracts; inflorescence either an umbel, or fan-shaped pair of cymes, or seemingly racemose, or solitary. | |
23 Stamens 3; inflorescence either a fan-shaped pair of cymes or seemingly racemose (or rarely solitary (e.g. Crocus) | |
22 Inflorescence or flower groups not subtended by spathes (though individual flowers may be subtended by small green bracts; inflorescence a raceme or panicle. | |
24 Leaves herbaceous; anthers < 5 mm long. | |
28 Inflorescence ebracteate, with > 10 flowers; leaf without a terminal pore; carpels ascending, appressed to one another | |
28 Inflorescence bracteate, with < 10 flowers; leaf with a terminal pore; carpels widely divergent, at nearly right angles to the axis | |
29 Leaves strictly or primarily cauline. | |
30 Leaves linear, > 15 cm long, hollow or flat; inflorescence an umbel; fresh plants with an oniony odor | |
30 Leaves linear to lanceolate, < 15 (-30) cm long, flat; inflorescence various, not an umbel; fresh plants without oniony odor. | |
29 Leaves strictly or primarily basal (the basal leaves persistent, and larger than any stem leaves). | |
32 Perianth not differentiated, the 6 segments similar in color, shape, and size, of various colors (sometimes pink). | |
33 Tepals brown or green, not at all yellow, white, or otherwise more brightly colored; inflorescence branched and complex | |
33 Tepals white, cream, pink, greenish-yellow, yellow, orange, pink, blue, or blue-brown; inflorescence either a terminal umbel, subtended by spathes or bracts, or a terminal raceme or panicle (or a terminal corymb in Ornithogalum in HYACINTHACEAE), not subtended by spathes or bracts. | |
34 Inflorescence a terminal umbel, subtended by spathes or bracts; fresh plants with or without an oniony odor | |
34 Inflorescence a terminal raceme or panicle (or a terminal corymb in Ornithogalum in HYACINTHACEAE), not subtended by spathes or bracts. | |
36 Tepals 5-8.5 cm long, yellow to orange; anthers dorsifixed (attached near the middle) | |
36 Tepals 0.2-1.0 0.2-1.2 (-2.0) cm long, white, cream, yellow, blue, or blue-brown; anthers basifixed (attached at the base) or dorsifixed (attached at the back). | |
38 Perianth blue or blue-brown, not farinose; leaves 2-7, erect, ascending, or the tips spreading; anthers dorsifixed (attached at the back) | |
35 Tepals completely distinct; filaments free (rarely epitepalous). | |
39 Styles 1, lobed only in the upper portion if at all; fruit either loculicidal capsules or berry-like; tepals blue, pink, or white with a broad green central stripe. | |
39 Styles 3, separate to the base; fruit a septicidal capsules (sometimes then also secondarily loculicidal); tepals white, greenish, yellowish, or pink. | |
42 Inflorescence ebracteate, lacking bracts subtending pedicels; tepals pink (Helonias) or white to cream (Chamaelirium). | |
43 Flowers white to cream; plants dioecious (individual flowers either male or female) | |
42 Inflorescences bracteate, with bracts subtending individual pedicels and (if they are present) branches of the inflorescence; tepals white, greenish-white, or cream. | |