The representative plants are: Polygonatum sibiricumDelar, Polygonatum odoratum(Mill.), Anermarrhena asphodeloidesBunge, Asparagus cochinchinensis (Lour.) Merr. maitake Ophiopogon japonicus. hepatica Paris polyphylla. sarsaparilla Smilax china. cocos Smilax glabra. daylily Hemerocallis fulva(L.) L. yellow dock Hemerocallis citrinaBaroni. Asparagus officinalisL. Veratrum nigrumL. Jade hairpinHosta plantaginea(Lam.) Aschers.Aloe veraL. var. chinensis (Haw.) Berg, Wan Nian Rohdea japonica (Thunb.) Roth, etc.
There are both famous flowers and good medicines in the lily family. Some are also edible. The main genera are Allium, Sarsaparilla, Lilium, Along the Steps, Yellow Essence, Asparagus, and Bayberry. The genera Zhimai, Heronopsis, and White Spirea are endemic to China.
Usually perennial herbs with rhizomes, tubers, or bulbs, rarely subshrubs, shrubs, or tree-like. Leaves basal or cauline, the latter mostly alternate, rarely opposite or whorled, usually with arcuate parallel veins, rarely with reticulate veins. Flowers bisexual, rarely unisexual or polygamous, usually actinomorphic, rarely slightly bilaterally symmetric; tepals 6, rarely 4 or many, free or variously connate (forming a tube), usually corolla-shaped; stamens usually as many as tepals, filaments free or adnate to tepal tube; anthers basifixed or butternut-bearing; anther locules 2, longitudinally dehiscent, rarely confluent to form a single locule but transversely sutured; carpels connate or variously free; ovary superior, rarely united, or rarely with a single locule. carpels connate or differently free; ovary superior, rarely semi-inferior, generally 3-loculed (rarely 2-, 4-, or 5-loculed), with axile placentation, rarely 1-loculed and with parietal placentation; ovules 1- to many anatropous per locule. Fruit a capsule or berry, less often a nut. Seeds with abundant endosperm, embryo small.