Habit:

Usually perennial herb as Polygonatum, sometimes small shrubs as Resscus, climbers as Smilax, trees as Yucca.

Root:

Adventitious, fibrous.

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Stem:

Erect or climbing as smilax, branched or unbranched, herbaceous, phyllocade as Ruscus. Cladode as Asparagus. Bulb as Allium cepa.

Leaf:

Radicle or cauline, exstipulate, stipulate in Smilax, scaly or fleshy or both, alternate or whorled, parallel ventation, but reticulate venation in Smilax.

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Inflorescence:

Raceme, umbel, sometimes solitary.

Flower:

Pedicellate, bracteate, hermaphrodite, sometimes unisexual as Ruscus, Smilax, complete, actinomorphic, trimerous, hypogynous.

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Perianth:

6 perianth in two whorls, anthers dithecous, introse, dorsifixed or basifixed or versatile, porous, longitudinal dehiscence.

Gynoecium:

Tricarpellary, syncarpous, superior ovary, axile placentation, trilocular, two or more ovules in each locule, style are simple, stigma trilobed. Fruit: Berry or capsule.

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Economic Importance

(A) Plants used as food:

Allium cepa, A. sativum and Asparagus racemosus are used as vegetables.

(B) Plants used in medicines:

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Leaves of Allium cepa (onion) are used in dental and ear troubles. The leaves of Allium sativum (Lahsun) are used in cough and fever. The leaf extract of Crinum latifolium (Sukhdarshan) is used in ear pain. Bulb and leaf of Crinum asiaticum are used in urinary troubles. Medicine obtained from Smilax zeylanica roots is used in arthritis and dysentry.

(C) Ornamental plants:

Dracaena terniflora Yucca sps. Lilium candidum, Gloriosa superba (Glory lily) etc.

(D) Other commercial uses:

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Colchicine, an alkaloid obtained from Colchicum autumnale in used to induce polyploidy in plants. A poison to kill rats, is prepared from bulbs of Urginea indica (white squill).