Colchicaceae

Colchicaceae is a family of flowering plants that includes 15 genera with a total of about 285 known species according to Christenhusz and Byng in 2016.

Description

The family is characterized by the presence of colchicine.

Taxonomy

The APG III system, of 2009, recognizes this family and places it in the order Liliales, in the clade monocots. It is a group of herbaceous perennials with rhizomes or corms.
The Dahlgren system and the Thorne system also recognized this family, and placed it in order Liliales in superorder Lilianae in subclass Liliidae of class Magnoliopsida.

Genera

The phylogenetic classification of Vinnersten & Manning circumscribes the family as follows:

tribe Burchardieae
* Burchardia R.Br.
tribe Uvularieae
* Disporum Salisb.
* Uvularia L.
tribe Tripladenieae
* Kuntheria Conran & Clifford
* Schelhammera R.Br.
* Tripladenia D.Don
tribe Iphigenieae
* Camptorrhiza E.Phillips
* Iphigenia Kunth
tribe Anguillarieae
* Baeometra Salisb.
* Wurmbea Thunb.
tribe Colchiceae
* Colchicum L.
* Gloriosa L.
* Hexacyrtis Dinter
* Ornithoglossum Salisb.
* Sandersonia Hook.

The genus Petermannia F.Muell. is excluded from this family and placed in its own family Petermanniaceae, Liliales. The former controversy regarding the inclusion of Androcymbium in Colchicum has now been resolved in favor of the 2007 classification of Manning et al. who included Androcymbium in Colchicum. This is supported by molecular phylogenetic studies with dense species sampling that showed that the type species of Androcymbium, A. melanthioides, is more closely related to species of Colchicum than it is to many species traditionally placed in Androcymbium.
Subsequently, Nguyen et al. proposed reclassifying the family on the basis of subfamilies:

Subfamily Uvularioideae
* Tribe Uvularieae
Subfamily Wurmbeoideae
* Tribe Burchardieae
* Tribe Tripladenieae
* Tribe Iphigenieae
* Tribe Angullarieae
* Tribe Colchiceae, Colchicum, Hexacyrtis, Ornithoglossum, ''Sandersonia''