Perennial or annual bulbous or rhizomatous herbs. Leaves simple, entire, linear to ovate, basal or cauline. Flowers radially symmetrical, bisexual, 1- to numerous in terminal racemes or terminal or axillary thyrses.Tepals 3+3, free, often spotted and/or with prominent nectaries; individual flower stalks not articulated. Stamens 6, free. Ovary superior, 3-chambered with numerous ovules. Fruit a many-seeded, dry dehiscent capsule, rarely a berry. Seeds brown or yellow, often with an appendage.
Liliaceae in the old broad sense was acknowledged as a botanically diverse association containing many genera needing further revision and assignment to new families. In this account it has been used in a narrow sense and includes what is sometimes treated as the separate family Calochortaceae.
16 genera, mostly from the Northern Hemisphere.
The bulbs, leaves or buds of some genera are eaten or used medicinally.
Non-articulated flowers with free, generally spotted or variously marked tepals, often with prominent nectaries, which usually fall at withering.
Source: (2005). Liliaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.