Asparagales are dominated in species number by Orchidaceae (c.19000 species),perhaps sister to the rest of the order.Orchidaceae flowers are strongly monosymmetric and are usually held upside down because the pedicel twists.there is usually only one functional anther,all the pollen grains of which are dispersed together by the pollinator.Variation in floral detail is great, and there is a close association between both orchid flowers and their pollinators, mostly insects.Orchids have minute seeds and endosymbiotic fungi; association with a fungus is essential for successful seedling establishment.The orchid subfamily Epidendroideae is particularly diverse and includes numerous tropical epiphytes. Seeds coated with black phytomelan are frequent in other Asparagales. These include Iridaceae (1700 species)with showy flowers often with modified tepals and styles, only three extrorse stamens, an inferior ovary, a clade including Alliaceae (onions), their close relatives Amaryllidaceae (daffodils) and Agapanthaceae (1600 species),with fairly simple flowers borne in a characteristic umbellate inflorescence. Sister to this clade are several families that are difficult to characterize, all having rather small, undistinguished 'lily-like' flowers; these are placed in Asparagaceae s.l. (c.2500 species).There may have been morphological