Brodiaeoideae

Brodiaeoideae are a monocot subfamily of flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, order Asparagales. They have been treated as a separate family, Themidaceae. They are native to Central America and western North America, from British Columbia to Guatemala. The name of the subfamily is based on the type genus "Brodiaea".
In molecular phylogenetic analyses, Brodiaeoideae is strongly supported as monophyletic. It is probably sister to Scilloideae. Recent treatments have divided Brodiaeoideae (or Themidaceae) into 12 genera. The monophyly of several of the genera remains in doubt. As currently circumscribed, the largest genera are "Triteleia", with 15 species, and "Brodiaea", with 14. Nine of the 12 genera are known in cultivation, but only species of "Brodiaea" and "Triteleia" are commonly grown.
Description.
The following description is derived from two sources.
Perennial herbs arising from a starchy corm; a new corm arising each year from the old one.
Leaves linear, often fleshy, forming a closed sheath at their base. Veins parallel.
Inflorescence an umbel, or rarely a single flower, at the apex of a solitary scape. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic. Tepals all similar, in 2 whorls of 3.
Fertile stamens 6, or 3 and alternating with 3 staminodes. Stamens and staminodes inserted on tepals. Anthers basifixed and introrse.
Ovary superior and trilocular.
Fruit a loculicidal capsule. Seed covered with phytomelan.
History.
For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, when the group was recognized at all, it was usually at tribal rank and usually called Brodiaeeae. Most authors assigned it to Liliaceae, Alliaceae, or Amaryllidaceae. In 1985, Dahlgren, Clifford, and Yeo treated it as tribe Brodiaeeae of Alliaceae.
Toward the end of the 20th century, it became increasingly evident that the heterogeneous Liliaceae recognized by most authors was several times polyphyletic and that "Brodiaea" and its relatives were closer to Asparagus than to "Allium" or "Amaryllis". For these reasons, the family Themidaceae was resurrected in an article in Taxon in 1996. The name 'Themidaceae' was first used by Richard Salisbury in 1866. The name was based on the now-defunct genus "Themis", which was established by Salisbury along with the family. The only species ever assigned to "Themis" was "Themis ixioides". Its name was changed to "Brodiaea ixioides" by Sereno Watson in 1879, then to "Triteleia ixioides" by Edward Lee Greene in 1886. It is known as "Triteleia ixioides" in Flora of North America.
When the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group published the APG II system in 2003, Themidaceae was treated as an optional circumscription for those who thought that Asparagaceae sensu lato should be divided into smaller segregate families. When the APG III system was published in 2009, Themidaceae was not accepted. In an accompanying article, it was treated as Brodiaeoideae, one of 7 subfamilies in Asparagaceae.
Genera.
According to the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website , the genera included in the subfamily are: