| # The Families of Angiosperms |

L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz

### Colchicaceae DC.

~ Liliaceae - Colchiceae.

Including Bulbocodeae (Bulbocodiaceae) Salisb., Burchardiaceae

Habit and leaf form. Herbs. Perennial; with a basal aggregation of leaves, or without conspicuous aggregations of leaves; cormous, or rhizomatous (Gloriosa). Self supporting, or climbing; climbers stem twiners and tendril climbers. Mesophytic. Leaves alternate; spiral (usually), or distichous; petiolate (rarely), or sessile; sheathing; simple. Lamina entire; linear, or lanceolate; parallel-veined; without cross-venules. Lamina margins entire.

General anatomy. Plants with ‘crystal sand’.

Leaf anatomy. The leaf lamina dorsiventral. Stomata present; anomocytic. The mesophyll containing crystals. The crystals represented by crystal sand. Foliar vessels absent.

Axial (stem, wood) anatomy. Secondary thickening absent. The axial xylem without vessels.

Root anatomy. Root xylem with vessels (in the fibrous roots only); vessel end-walls scalariform.

Reproductive type, pollination. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite. Floral nectaries present. Nectar secretion from the perianth (usually), or from the androecium (e.g. Colchicum).

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers solitary, or aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; when aggregated, in cymes, or in racemes, or in umbels. The ultimate inflorescence units cymose, or racemose. Inflorescences scapiflorous, or not scapiflorous; terminal, or axillary, or leaf-opposed; espatheate. Flowers small to large; regular; 3 merous; cyclic; pentacyclic. Perigone tube present, or absent.

Perianth of ‘tepals’; 6(–8); free, or joined; 1 whorled (commonly in Australian genera, e.g. Wurmbea), or 2 whorled (usually 3+3?); isomerous; petaloid; without spots, or spotted; similar in the two whorls (in size and form); white, or purple, or yellow, or red (or yellow at first, becoming bright red).

Androecium 6. Androecial members free of the perianth (usually), or adnate (to the tepals); all equal; free of one another (usually), or coherent (e.g. Sandersonia, Wurmbea); rarely 1 adelphous; 1 whorled (e.g. Wurmbea), or 2 whorled (usually, 3+3). Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 6; diplostemonous; alterniperianthial. Anthers dorsifixed, or basifixed; versatile, or non-versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; extrorse (usually), or latrorse (very rarely almost introrse); tetrasporangiate. The endothecial thickenings spiral. Microsporogenesis successive. Tapetum glandular. Pollen grains aperturate; 1 aperturate, or 2–4 aperturate; sulcate (mostly), or foraminate, or spiraperturate; 2-celled.

Gynoecium 3(–4) carpelled. Carpels isomerous with the perianth. The pistil 3(–4) celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious to synstylovarious (with free stylodia, or the single style tribrachiate); superior. Ovary 3(–4) locular. Styles 1, or 3; free to partially joined; apical. Stigmas 3; wet type, or dry type. Placentation axile. Ovules 5–50 per locule; anatropous to campylotropous; bitegmic; pseudocrassinucellate. Embryo-sac development Polygonum-type. Polar nuclei fusing prior to fertilization. Antipodal cells formed; 3; proliferating (Iphigenia, up to 11 cells), or not proliferating. Endosperm formation nuclear. Embryogeny onagrad, or asterad.

Fruit non-fleshy; dehiscent; a capsule. Capsules septicidal (usually), or loculicidal, or septicidal and loculicidal (e.g. Wurmbea). Seeds endospermic. Endosperm oily. Cotyledons 1 (conspicuously coleoptile-like). Embryo straight (rarely subglobose). Testa without phytomelan; brown (mostly), or red.

Seedling. Hypocotyl internode absent. Mesocotyl absent. Seedling collar not conspicuous. Cotyledon hyperphyll compact; non-assimilatory. Coleoptile present. First leaf dorsiventral. Primary root persistent to ephemeral (with abundant laterals, but soon destroyed).

Physiology, phytochemistry. C3 physiology recorded directly in Gloriosa. Anatomy non-C4 type (Gloriosa). Inulin recorded (Gibbs 1974). Not cyanogenic. Alkaloids typically present (colchicine and related compounds, the plants very poisonous to humans and animals). Saponins/sapogenins absent. Proanthocyanidins absent. Flavonols absent. Ellagic acid absent.

Geography, cytology. Holarctic, Paleotropical, and Cape. Temperate. Europe, 429,1 430,2/4/6/8 Mediterranean, to Central Asia and North India, centred on the summer rainfall regions of southern Africa. X = 5–12(–19). Supposed basic chromosome number of family: 11.

Taxonomy. Subclass Monocotyledonae. Dahlgren et al. Superorder Liliiflorae; Liliales. APG III core angiosperms; Superorder Lilianae; non-commelinid Monocot. APG IV Order Liliales.

Species about 200. Genera about 20; Androcymbium, Anguillaria, Baeometra, Burchardia (? — lacking colchicine and related compounds), Colchicum, Gloriosa, Hexacyrtis, Iphigenia, Littonia, Neodregea, Onixotis, Ornithoglossum, Sandersonia, Wurmbea, etc. (Dahlgren et al. 1985).

Economic uses, etc. Including plants poisonous enough to cause human and animal fatalities if ingested, having been been used to commit murder, to achieve suicide and to kill animals.

Illustrations. • Le Maout and Decaisne: Colchicum. • Colchicum autumnale: Köhler's Medizinal Pflanzen 1 (1887). • Colchicum autumnale (as C. crociflorum): Bot. Mag. 132 (1906). • Colchicum autumnale (B. Ent., 1837). • Colchicum luteum: Bot. Mag. 101 (1875). • Colchicum montanum: Bot. Mag. 105 (1879). • Colchicum robustum (as Merendera aitchisoni): Bot. Mag. 99 (1873). • Colchicum speciosum: Bot. Mag. 100 (1874). • Colchicum troodi (as C. troodii): Bot. Mag. 112 (1886). • Colchicum variegatum (as C. parkinsonii): Bot. Mag. 100 (1874). • Gloriosa modesta (as Littonia): Bot. Mag. 79 (1853). • Gloriosa simplex (as Methonica virescens): Bot. Mag. 82 (1856). • Gloriosa superba (as Methonica grandiflora): Bot. Mag. 86 (1860). • Littonia, Wurmbea, Sandersonia (Chittenden). • Wurmbea glassii, as Neodregea: Hook. Ic. Pl. 30 (1911). • Sandersonia aurantiaca: Bot. Mag. 79 (1853).

We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, distributions of character states within any set of taxa, geographical distribution, genera included in each family, and classifications (Dahlgren; Dahlgren, Clifford, and Yeo; Cronquist; APG). See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.

Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1992 onwards. The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 8th June 2026. delta-intkey.com’.

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