An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions/Convallariaceae

by Nathaniel Lord Britton & Addison Brown

Family 23.   Convallariaceae   Link.   Handb. 1: 184.   1829.
Lily-of-the-Valley Family.

Scapose or leafy-stemmed herbs, with simple or branched rootstocks, never with bulbs or corms.  Flowers solitary, racemose, panicled or umbelled, regular and perfect.  Leaves broad, parallel-veined and sometimes with cross-veinlets, alternate, verticillate or basal, or in Asparagus and its allies reduced to scales bearing filiform or flattened branchlets in their axils.  Perianth inferior, 4-6-parted with separate segments, or oblong, cylindric or urn-shaped and 6-lobed or 6-toothed.  Stamens 6, rarely 4, hypogynous or borne on the perianth; anthers introrsely, extrorsely or laterally dehiscent.  Ovary 2~3-celled, superior; ovules anatropous or amphitropous; style slender or short; stigma mostly 3-lobed.  Fruit a fleshy berry, rarely a capsule.  Seeds few or numerous.  Embryo small.

About 23 genera and 215 species, widely distributed.

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Leaves reduced to scales ; leaf-like bractlets filiform.

1.

Asparagus.

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Leaves broad; stems simple or somewhat branched.

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Leaves basal; flowers umbelled or solitary.

2.

Clintonia.

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Leaves alternate (solitary in flowerless plants of no. 4).

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Perianth-segments separate.

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Flowers racemed, umbelled, panicled or solitary, terminal.

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Flowers racemed or panicled.

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Perianth-segments 6.

3.

Vagnera.

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Perianth-segments 4.

4.

Unifolium.

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Flowers umbelled or solitary.

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Fruit a berry.

5.

Disporum.

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Fruit a capsule.

6.

Uvularia.

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Flowers solitary or two together, axillary.

7.

Streptopus.

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Perianth cylindric or oblong, 6-toothed.

8.

Polygonatum.

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Leaves nearly basal; flowers racemed; perianth 6-toothed.

9.

Convallana.