Agavaceae
龍舌蘭科
特徵描述
作者
YING, Shao-Shun
型態特徵
Shrubs or perennial stout herbs; rhizome subterranean; stem woody or not, short or elongate. Leaves usually aggregated at base of stem or occasionally crowded at apex of branches; blade fleshy to coriaceous, often spine-tipped or with spiny margins. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, actinomorphic to zygomorphic, in racemes, spikes or panicles, sometimes in a large thyrse; perianth free or more or less highly connate; tube short to rather long; segments 6, equal to subequal; stamens 6, arising from perianth tube or from base of perianth segments, filaments free, anthers medifixed, linear, 2-celled; cells longitudinally dehiscent; ovary superior to inferior, 3-locular, placentation axile, or rarely 1 locular; ovules 2-numerous, 1-2-seriate superposed, rarely solitary; style and stigmas various. Fruit a loculicidally dehiscent capsule or baccate, or dry and indehiscent; seeds one to many, globose or somewhat compressed.
屬
About 18 genera, more than 500 species mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of the world; four genera, native and introduced, in Taiwan.