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In this article we will discuss about the Families of Monocotyledons:- 1. LILIACEAE (The ‘Lily’ Family) 2. GRAMINEAE OR POACEAE (The Grass Family).
1. LILIACEAE (The ‘Lily’ Family):
Aids for ‘Field Identification’:
Perennial herbs, often forming corms, bulbs or rhizomes; perianth showy; floral part in 3s; stamens 6; ovary superior.
A. Asphodelus Tenuifolius (Vern. Piazi):
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Habit:
An annual herb.
Root:
Fibrous, adventitious roots.
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Stem:
Condensed, underground and reduced, fistular.
Leaf:
Radical, simple, exstipulate, sessile, leaf base sheathing, long, acicular, entire, acute, fleshy, hollow, multicostate parallel.
Inflorescence:
Racemose raceme with its flowers on erect, cylindrical, fleshy, long peduncle or scape.
Flower:
Bracteate, ebracteolate, pedicellate, complete, hermaphrodite, actinomorphic, trimerous, small, white.
Perianth:
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Tepals 6, arranged in two whorls of 3 each, polyphyllous, petalloid, oblong, valvate, white, mid-rib brownish and ridged.
Androecium:
Stamens 6, arranged in two whorls of 3 each, polyandrous, epiphyllous, attached just opposite to each perianth lobe, filaments unequal and larger of outer whorl than that of inner whorl, dithecous, versatile, introrse, white.
Gynoecium:
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Tricarpellary, syncarpous, superior, trilocular, two ovules in each locule, axile placentation, style filiform, stigma trifid and yellow.
Fruit:
A capsule.
Seed:
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Endospermic.
Floral Formula:
Identification and Systematic Position:
2. GRAMINEAE OR POACEAE (The Grass Family):
Aids for Field Identification:
Herbs; stem (culm) with hollow internodes, terete; leaves mostly flat and 2-ranked, leaf sheath usually open; fruit caryopsis.
B. Triticum Aestivum L. (Wheat; Vern. Genhu):
Habit:
An annual cultivated, cereal crop.
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Root:
Fibrous, adventitious.
Stem:
Herbaceous, erect, cylindrical, unbranched but rarely branched, nodes and internodes are very clear, fistular, rough and green.
Leaf:
Radical when young but cauline later on; simple, alternate, exstipulate, sessile, differentiating into a long blade and a sheathing leaf base covering the internode; a membranous ligule is present at the junction of blade and leaf base; linear to lanceolate, entire, acuminate; multicostate parallel venation.
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Inflorescence:
Spike of spikelets. Each spikelet consists of a pair of glumes, many inferior palea or lemma, superior palea, and encloses the lodicules, stamens and gynoecium.
Flower:
Bracteate (lemma or inferior palea), bracteolate (superior palea), sessile, complete, hermaphrodite, zygomorphic, hypogynous, small and inconspicuous; lemma is prolonged into a long ‘awn’.
Perianth:
Reduced into two modified, fleshy, small and white antero-laterally placed structures called lodicules.
Androecium:
Stamens 3, polyandrous, one anterior and two posterolaterally placed, filament long and comes out of the flower, dithecous, versatile, introrse.
Gynoecium:
Monocarpellary (but according to some, it is bi- to tricarpellary, syncarpous, unilocular); superior, unilocular, one ovule in the locule; marginal placentation; style absent; stigmas two, feathery and lateral.
Fruit:
Caryopsis.
Seed:
Endospermic.
Floral Formula:
Identification and Systematic Position:
