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1 Leaves on a stem; flowers not scapose; tepals orange, red, rose, yellow, or white. | |
5 Leafy stem branched; fruit a red to whitish-tan berry; [subfamily Streptopoideae]. | |
6 Stems brownish, wiry; inflorescence terminal; terminal 2 leaves on each branch usually closely approximate, appearing almost opposite | |
5 Leafy stem unbranched; fruit a green to tan capsule; [subfamily Lilioideae]. | |
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4 Leaves whorled; flowers radially or bilaterally symmetrical. | |
5 Plant with 2 or more leaf-bearing nodes (all nodes whorled or some alternate). | |
6 Leaves lanceolate, oblanceolate or narrowly elliptic, > 4× as long as wide, cuneate at the base; flowers bisexual and plants hermaphroditic | |
5 Plant with a single leaf-bearing node. | |
9 Inflorescence otherwise, a raceme, panicle, cyme, umbel, spike, etc., the flowers arrayed in a more diffuse manner, the central rachis not thickened, the inflorescence subtended or not by green or scarious spathes. | |
11 Leaf venation parallel; leaves various in size and shape, if > 3 dm long, then < 1 dm wide; perianth often differentiated into a lip and 5 petaloid tepals | |
11 Leaf venation prominently penni-parallel; leaves large, at least some on a plant with blade > 2 dm long. | |
12 Fertile stamen 1; leaf blades 0.5-7 dm long. | |
13 Leaves spirally arranged. | |
17 Perianth not differentiated, consisting of 6 similarly colored and shaped tepals; flowers strongly to slightly bilaterally symmetrical; inflorescence lacking well-developed spathaceous bracts | |
17 Perianth differentiated into green sepals and more brightly colored petals; flowers radially symmetrical (or weakly bilaterally symmetrical, as in some Commelina). | |
16 Inflorescence not subtended by spathes, though individual small green bracts sometimes subtending individual flowers. | |
20 Flowers consisting of white petals and green sepals, with 1-many stamens and 3-many carpels (but not consistently with 9 stamens and 6 carpels); inflorescence a raceme or panicle in whorls of 3, branched; leaf blades flat or terete | |
20 Flowers consisting of pink petals and green-pink sepals, usually with 9 stamens and 6 carpels; inflorescence an umbel; leaf blades triquetrous in cross-section | |
21 Leaves basal or basally disposed. | |
25 Inflorescence a terminal umbel; fruit a blue or black berry; tepals white or yellow; flowers bisexual | |
25 Inflorescence a terminal raceme or panicle; fruit a capsule; tepals white, green, yellowish, or pink; flowers either bisexual (Helonias in HELONIADACEAE), or unisexual and primarily on different plants (dioecious) (Chamaelirium in CHIONOGRAPHIDACEAE), or a mix of bisexual and unisexual staminate flowers (Veratrum in MELANTHIACEAE) | |
26 Inflorescences bracteate, with bracts subtending individual pedicels and (if they are present) branches of the inflorescence; tepals white, greenish-white, or cream | |
26 Inflorescence ebracteate, lacking bracts subtending pedicels; flowers bisexual (Helonias) or predominantly unisexual and on different plants (dioecious) (Chamaelirium); tepals pink (Helonias) or white to cream (Chamaelirium). | |
27 Flowers white to cream; plants dioecious (individual plants either male or female, with all male flowers or all female flowers) | |
21 Leaves cauline. | |
28 Leaves not both cordate/subcordate and petiolate (some with cordate clasping or perfoliate leaf bases). {add [Smilax] SMILACACEAE below} | |
31 Leaves alternate and in whorls at some nodes; flowers orange; tepals > 5 cm long; inflorescence a terminal umbel or single flower | |
32 Inflorescence a terminal umbel; flowers slightly zygomorphic, reddish, the tepals 3.5-4.5 cm long | |
32 Inflorescence either a terminal cluster, raceme, or panicle, or an axillary raceme, cluster or solitary flower; flowers actinomorphic, variously colored (most white or yellow), the tepals < 3.5 cm long (except Uvularia grandiflora). | |
33 Leaves arrayed distichously (2 ranked) along an arching, unbranched or dichotomously (Y-forking) branched stem; fruit a berry or loculicidal capsule; flowers all bisexual; perianth white, pink, or yellow. | |
35 Stems of fertile individuals branched (always at least bifurcate), but sterile individuals in some genera characteristically unbranched; inflorescence either of 1 (-2) flower(s) borne in a leaf axil (Uvularia, Streptopus), or of (1) 2 (-3) flowers borne terminally opposite the last leaf (Prosartes); fruit a berry or capsule. | |
38 Stem brown, wiry, puberulent; last 2 leaves (near stem tip) on each branch approximate to one another (sometimes subopposite) and with noticeably oblique bases; flowers and fruits terminal on the branches | |