Common Name: ASPHODEL FAMILY
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, shrub [tree], fleshy or not, rhizomed. Stem: branched or not. Leaf: basal or +- so or in terminal clusters, alternate, linear to widely lanceolate [ovate], small (1.5--27 cm, 0.5--3 mm wide) [to large (1.9--4 m, 3--6 cm wide)], leathery or not, fleshy or not, entire or with minute sharp teeth or coarse prickles. Inflorescence: panicle [spike, raceme], bracts scattered. Flower: perianth parts 6, in 2 petal-like whorls, radial or +- bilateral, free or +- fused; stamens 6, equal or not, anthers attached at base or middle; ovary superior, chambers 3. Fruit: capsule, loculicidal. Seed: 6--many, flat, angled, or winged, gray, brown, +- black, black-brown.
Genera In Family: +- 17 genera, 800 species: Africa, Mediterranean to central Asia.
eFlora Treatment Author: Dale W. McNeal
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: RED-HOT POKER
Habit: Perennial herb, rhizome short, stout, erect; roots long, cord-like. Stem: scapose, erect, glaucous. Leaf: basal, linear, grass-like, 30--100 cm, 1--2 cm wide +- folded, entire or with minute sharp teeth, glaucous. Inflorescence: spike-like raceme, cylindric, flowers reflexed. Flower: perianth parts petal-like, tube 25--45 mm, lobes 2--5 mm, rounded to acute; stamens (4 or)6, included to +- exserted, outer 3 shorter, anthers attached at middle; style 1, exserted, stigma small. Seed: many.
Etymology: (Johann Hieronymus Kniphof, 1704--1763, German botanist, professor of medicine, and author of a work of botanical illustrations)