Lily family
Description
A large family of monocotyledonous herbs and some shrubs or trees with a cosmopolitan distribution, most with elongated leaves springing from rhizomes, bulbs or corms.The flowers are borne in a raceme or umbel, mostly regular and with two similar whorls of petaloid perianth segments, usually with 6 stamens and a superior ovary. The fruit is a capsule or berry.
There are about 250 genera. Formerly also the onions were included in this family, but they are separated in the family Alliaceae.
Use
Many genera are cultivated for their flowers (Liliaceae 2), like tulips (Miscellaneous plants 14), and hyacinths. The genus Asparagus yields a stem vegetable (Liliaceae 1).
Described species
Asparagus officinalis, asparagus