Aloaceae

Picture 1 Distribution of Aloaceae (Universytas of California, 2019)

Mostly herbs, seldom climbers, subshrubs, shrubs, or even (rarely0 small trees, commonly with animalous secondary growth resulting in the formation of concentric rings of vascular bundles; plants often accumulating free oxalates, potassium nitrate and saponins, producing betalains but not anthocyanins, not tanniferous, lacking both proanthocynins and ellagic acid; nodes unilavunar; crystals of calcium oxalate commonly present in some of the cells of the parenchymatous tissues, often as clustered crystals or crystals sand; vessel-segments with simple perforations; imperforate tracheary elements with simple pits; sievetubes with a special kind o p-type plastid that includes a subperipheral ring of proteinaceous filaments, but without a central protein crystaloid.

Stout, simple or sparingly branched shurbs or branching stout trees up to several m high, with leaves crowing the branches, or sometimes the plants with an erect, slender, woody stem and a terminal crown of leaves in the manner of palms (but the leaves not palm-like), or often coarse, short-stemmed, more or less herbaceous plants arising from a short rhizome or erect caudex, plants presumably with crassulacean acid metabolism, commonly with corky, raphide-containing cells in at least some of the tissues, and commonly producing anthraquinones and chelidonic acid, but not known to produce tannins, steroid saponins, or alkaloids; strach wanting, even from vegetative organs; vessels confined to the roots; often some of the roots tuberous-thickened; stem with secondary growth of the monocotyledoneous type, the vascular bundles closed and scattered.

Leaves. Simple, alternate, sessile, crowded in dense a shory main stem, perennial and more or less strongly, spinepointed, parallel-vained, but the veins commonly obscure; stomates mostly sunken, more or less distinctly tetracytic; vascular bundles at least typically with a large cap of wide, thin-walled cells at the phloem pole.

Flower. Borne in a terminal spike, receme, or pinicle on a relatively slender, scape-like axillary shoot, mostly ornithophilous or entomophilous, trimemous throughout; tepals evidently in 2 cycles of 3 all petaloid and often fleshy.bilabiate; stamens 6, hypogynous, tetrasporangiate and dithecal, pollen-grains monosulcate; gynoecium of 3 carpels, superior, trilocular ovary with axile placentation and at least usually with septal nectaries; style terminal, orthoropous to hemitropoud, bitegmic,

Fruit, a loculicidal capsule, rarely fleshy and berry but still dehiscent; seed commonly winged or flattened embryo straight with a terminal cotyledon and lateral plumule, very hard endosperm. (Cronquist, 1981).