1072.000 Lilium L.

Bulbous perennial herbs; stem erect, leafy. Leaves alternate, rarely whorled, sessile or sub-sessile; lamina usually linear; bulbils sometimes present in leaf axis. Inflorescence a raceme or solitary flower, very rarely an umbel or corymb, terminal; bracts leaf-like. Flowers often funnel-form or campanulate, sometimes tubular or cupular; tepals 6, free, sometimes strongly recurved or revolute, white, yellow, greenish, or reddish to purplish; nectariferous near base adaxially, nectaries sometimes fringed with papillae or hairs, rarely flat on outer tepals. Fruit a capsule, loculicidally dehiscent. Seeds many, narrowly winged all round.

Worldwide: 107 species from northen temperate zones to the Phillipines; one weedy species in southern Africa

Zimbabwe: 1 taxon.