Colchicaceae

By: Til K. Thapa & Sangeeta Rajbhandary

Taxon Description 

Perennial herbs with stoloniferous, tuberous, creeping or tunicate corm. Leaves simple, basal or cauline, opposite or alternate, linear, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, sessile or shortly petiolate, apex sometime cirrhose (i.e. forming a tendril). Scale leaves sometimes present at the base of stem. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, racemose, born on a leafy stem or leafless scape, solitary- or few-flowered. Flowers actinomorphic, bisexual, hypogynous. Pedicels long or short. Bracts present or not. Perianth petaloid, usually 6-merous in 2 series, imbricate rarely valvate in bud, segments free or united. Stamens 6, inserted opposite to perianth segments, filaments free or adnate to perianth, anthers oblong to linear, often versatile, usually 2-lobed and dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary superior, 3-loculed, axile placentation, ovules 2 or more; styles usually simple, often long; stigmas 3. Fruit a capsule or berry. Seeds 1 or more, globose or flattened with abundant endosperm and a small embryo.

Taxon Statistics

Worldwide 15 genera and 285 species in tropical to temperate regions. Three genera and four species in Nepal.

Number of genera and species in the family and number of species in the genera are cited from the ‘Flowering Plants of the World’ (Christenhusz et al., 2017).

Key to Genera

1a Leaves linear. Rootstock a tunicate corm …..….….………..……………………………………………………………………………..… 1. Iphigenia

b Leaves lanceolate. Rootstocks tuberous or creeping ……………………………………………………………………………………..……..………. 2

2a Stems twining. Leaf tip cirrhose. Fruit a loculicidal capsule ..…………………………………………………………….……………. 2. Gloriosa

b Stems erect. Leaf tip simple. Fruit a berry ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3. Disporum