Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

Distribution and
classification
Reproduction
Key to the genera
HYPOXIS 261
Mature seeds are black to brownish, with a thick black
(phytomelan) crust and copious fatty endosperm.
The family is widely distributed in grasslands and
woodlands in tropical and subtropical regions of all
continents, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere,
where it has a centre of diversity in South Africa. It
includes 9 genera of which 2, Hypoxis and Curculigo,
are represented in the Horn of Africa. Modern analyses
indicated that the family is related to the orchids.
The flowers do not display any sophisticated pollination
adaptations, and lack nectaries. They tend to attract
unspecialised insects that will get their reward in pollen.
The flowers are slightly protandrous, meaning that the
anthers mature before the stigma, a mechanism to avoid
self­pollination.
Most species in the genus Hypoxis have been shown
to reproduce by apomixis, meaning that the embryos
develop from unreduced egg cells. This mechanism
leads to parthenogenesis, which genetically corresponds
to cloning of the mother plant. Apomixis is rare in the
tropics, becoming more common towards the Arctic
(where pollinators are scanty), and will always create
problems in defining the boundaries among the species.
Without gene flow in the populations, more or less
definable clones may behave as taxonomic entities, and
the species concept becomes diffuse.
1. Leaves without a petiole and not plicate; inflorescence most often with several
flowers; ovary above the ground and situated directly below the tepals; fruit a
capsule opening by slits or by a lid; seeds without a hook 1. Hypoxis
- Leaves petiolate and plicate; inflorescence 1-flowered; ovary subterranean and
separated from the tepals by a tube/beak; fruit berry-like, releasing the seeds
by being eaten or by disintegrating in the soil; seeds with a conspicuous hook
2. Curculigo