Abstract
Perennial plants with thick woody stems varying from mainly subterranean, not appearing above the ground, to rather tall and arborescent, branched or unbranched. Leaves borne in dense tufts at the tips of the branches, spirally inserted, long and linear with thickened resiniferous bases persisting as a dense covering to the stem. Inflorescence massive, dense, spikelike, cylindrical, on a woody scape. Flowers bisexual, hypogynous, sessile, actinomorphic, in spirally arranged clusters surrounded by packed bracts. Perianth persistent and hardened at maturity; sepals 3, free, chartaceous or scarious; petals 3, free, membranous, white or yellow, with exserted apices. Stamens 3 + 3, free; anthers bithecate and tetrasporangiate, dorsifixed, dehiscing introrsely by slits. Gynoecium syncarpous, 3-carpellary; septal nectaries well developed; ovary 3-locular, each lo-cule bearing 2 rows of ovules; style terminal, simple, subulate, tapering into an undivided stigma. Fruit a loculicidal capsule. Seeds 1–2 per locule, flattened; testa black; endosperm copious, lacking starch; embryo linear, transverse to long axis of seed.
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Clifford, H.T. (1998). Xanthorrhoeaceae. In: Kubitzki, K. (eds) Flowering Plants · Monocotyledons. The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, vol 3. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03533-7_61
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03533-7_61
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