General description:- Herbaceous perennials, usually with a bulb, corm orrhizome.
Leaves:- usually equitant, ensiform, occasionally linear.
Flowers:- Inflorescence terminal, 1- to many-flowered. Perianth petaloid, 6-partite,radially or bilaterally symmetrical, usually with a hypanthial tube. Stamens 3,opposite the outer perianth-segments. Ovary inferior, usually 3-celled (3-locular) andwith many ovules. Style 3-lobed, branches entire or divided, sometimes petaloid.
Fruit:- A capsule.
Genus:- CROCUS
Corm:- Usually symmetrical, enclosed by several tunics of variable texture andcolour. Cataphylls up to 5, sheathing the aerial shoot. Leaves appearing with orafter the flowers.
Leaves:- All basal, flat or canaliculate on the upper surface; lower surface usuallystrongly keeled, usually with 2 grooves.
Flowers:- Scape absent. Flower one to several, each on a short, subterranean pedicel which is sometimes subtended by a membranous, sheathing prophyll.Bract membranous; bracteole similar or reduced or absent. Perianth regular; tubelong and narrow, glabrous or with a ring of hairs in the throat at the insertion of thefilaments; segments usually subequal. Anthers usually extrorse. Style 3-lobed tomultifid. Ovary subterranean.
Fruit:- Capsule cylindrical or ellipsoid, maturing at or above ground level byelongation of pedicel. Seeds numerous, usually globose or ellipsoid, brownish orreddish, with a strophiole.
Key features:-
1) Hypanthial tube more than 1·5 cm.
2) Ovary below ground, enclosed in a membranous bract and sometimes also abracteole.
3) Leaves flat or canaliculate with a white stripe.
Genus:- FREESIA
Stock:- A corm
Corm:- Tunic usually with coarse fibres. Leaf-sheaths 2-4, basal.
Stem:- leafy, branched
Flowers:- Spike secund; flowers usually horizontal; bracts short, 2- to 3-toothed at apex. Flowers zygomorphic, scented; hypanthial tube straight, infundibuliform; perianth-segments short, oblong, unequal, not spreading; stamens included. Style filiform, its branches deeply divided.
Fruit:- A verrucose.capsule.
Genus:- GLADIOLUS
Corm:- Tunic usually with coarse fibres. Leaf-sheaths 2-4, basal.
Leaves:- 1-16, the basal usually ensiform, the cauline usually reduced, bract-like.
Flowers:- Zygomorphic, in a simple or branched, usually secund spike. Bract and bracteoles usually large, green, persistent. Perianth-segments 6, in 2 whorls, ovate to lanceolate, often attenuated below to form a claw. Hypanthial tube usually curved, funnel-shaped (infundibuliform). Stamens usually curved towards the upper side of the perianth. Style circular in cross section (terete), thread-like (filiform); stigmatic branches 3, obovate to obcordate, with a fringed (fimbriate) margin or with the margin covered with small nipple-like projections (papillose).
Fruit:- Capsule oblong-globose to cylindrical. Seeds usually broadly winged.
Key features:-
1) Flowers pink or purple.
2) Stigmas obovate to obcordate.
Genus:- IRIS
Including:- Subgenera IRIS, XIPHION
Sects IRIS, JUNO, SPATHULA
Stock:- A rhizome or bulb.
Plant:- Usually with an evident stem above ground (caulescent).
Leaves:- Equitant, mostly basal.
Flowers:- Actinomorphic, usually large, in cymose inflorescences (rarely solitary). Perianth-segments dimorphic, the outer (falls) patent or deflexed, the inner (standards) erect (rarely spreading (patent)), often smaller than the outer. Style divided above into 3 conspicuous petaloid branches, each of which overlies a stamen and the claw of one of the falls, and bears a stigma in the form of a membranous flap on the lower surface, near the apex. Ovary 3-celled (3-locular), surmounted by a distinct (though sometimes very short) hypanthial tube.
Subgen. IRIS
Stock:- A rhizome.
Stem:- Usually solid.
Leaves:- Isobilateral.
Sect. IRIS
Rhizome:- Stout, of uniform diameter.
Stems:- Simple or branched.
Flowers:- Falls with a beard of multicellular hairs.
Fruit:- Seeds without an aril.
Subgen. XIPHION
Stock:- A bulb.
Stem:- Simple, hollow.
Leaves:- Not isobilateral.
Sect. JUNO
Roots:- Fleshy, persistent in the dormant season.
Leaves:- Conduplicate.
Flowers:- Standards patent, less than ½ as long as falls.
Fruit:- Seeds without an aril.
Sect. SPATHULA
Rhizome:- Usually slender, of uniform diameter.
Stems:- Simple or branched.
Flowers:- Falls glabrous, or puberulent with unicellular hairs.
Fruit:- Seeds with an aril.
Genus:- - MORAEA
Stock:- A corm.
Plant:- Usually with an evident stem above ground (caulescent).
Leaves:- Equitant, mostly basal.
Flowers:- Actinomorphic, usually large, in cymose inflorescences (rarely solitary). Perianth-segments inserted on the slender, sterile, terminal beak of the ovary.
The outer (falls) patent or deflexed, the inner (standards) erect (rarely spreading (patent)), often smaller than the outer. Style divided above into 3 conspicuous petaloid branches, each of which overlies a stamen and the claw of one of the falls, and bears a stigma in the form of a membranous flap on the lower surface, near the apex. Stamens closely adherent to style-branches, though not truly adnate Ovary 3-celled (3-locular).
Key features:-
1) Hypanthial tube absent