Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

Distribution and
classification
Reproduction
HYACINTHACEAE
SCHIZOBASIS DIPCADI 183
The family includes bulbous plants with leaves, often more
or less spotted, filiform to lanceolate, in a basal rosette.
The scape is glabrous and leafless. The inflorescence is
usually a raceme or a spike, rarely extremely branched
(as in Schizobasis). The flowers are white to greenish,
yellowish, or purplish, often with a darker green or
purple midrib. The tepals are free or fused into a shorter
or longer tube. The ovaries include one to many ovules
per locule. The fruit is most often a loculicidal capsule,
that means it splits between the walls separating its three
chambers, rarely it is septicidal, i.e. it splits along the
separating walls. The seeds are black, subglobose or
flattened, sometimes winged.
Hyacinthaceae is related to the Alliaceae (the onion
family), differing mainly in chemistry and inflorescence,
which is umbel­like in the latter. The sulphur compounds
giving the particular smell and taste of members of the
onion family are lacking in the hyacinths. Amaryllidaceae
is also related, sharing the features of a typical bulb, the
basal leaf rosette and the glabrous scape, differing in
the umbel-like inflorescence similar to the onions; and
further by the inferior ovary.
The family is widely distributed in tropical to temperate
areas world­wide. Its centres of diversity are in Southern
Africa and in the Mediterranean area. Taxonomists
today disagree on the generic delimitation; from 40 to
67 genera are recently reported. On species number the
agreement is better, and c. 900 species are accepted.
On the Horn of Africa there are 7 genera: Schizobasis,
Dipcadi, Drimiopsis, Ledebouria, Drimia, Albuca, and
Ornithogalum. All these genera have centres of variation
in southern Africa. Dipcadi, Drimia, and Ornithogalum
reach the Mediterranean region and Central Asia. The
species from the Horn of African find their closest
relatives in the south.
Pollen and nectar are offered as floral rewards. The nectar
is produced in the septal walls of the ovary, and secreted