Dianella

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in biology, Dianella (Alias:Rhuacophila Latin:Dianella Lam. ex Juss.) is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Asphodelaceae. Plants in this genus are tufted herbs with more or less linear leaves and bisexual flowers with three sepals more or less similar to three petals and a superior ovary, the fruit a berry.

Herbs, perennial, evergreen, scapose, mat-forming, from stout, creeping, scaly rhizomes with fibrous, tuberous roots. Leaves basal, radical, distichous, crowded, sheathing, firm to subcoriaceous; blade linear to broadly ensiform, basal sheaths connate into short tubes, margins entire or serrulate, apex obtuse. Scape elongate, 0.5–1 m. Inflorescences paniculate, loosely branching with short, terminal racemes, bracteate; bracts small. Flowers nodding to ascending; tepals 6, persistent, withering, distinct, subequal, narrowly oblong to ovate, 3–7-veined; stamens 6, distinct; filaments barely adnate to tepal bases, thickened distally; anthers basifixed, dehiscence extrorse, opening by terminal pores that become longitudinal slits; ovary superior, 3-locular, septal nectaries present; style filiform; stigma minute, capitate; pedicel slender, articulate distally. Fruits rather long-persistent, baccate, blue to bluish purple, ovoid-globose. Seeds black, lustrous, ovate, somewhat flattened. x = 8.

Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, Caroline Is., China South-Central, China Southeast, Cook Is., East Himalaya, Fiji, Hainan, Hawaii, Japan, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Madagascar, Malaya, Maluku, Marianas, Marquesas, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nansei-shoto, Nepal, New Caledonia, New Guinea, New South Wales, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Norfolk Is., Northern Territory, Ogasawara-shoto, Philippines, Pitcairn Is., Queensland, Réunion, Seychelles, Society Is., Solomon Is., South Australia, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Taiwan, Tasmania, Thailand, Tonga, Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Vanuatu, Victoria, Vietnam, Western Australia, Zimbabwe

Plants in the genus Dianella occur in Africa, South-east Asia, the Pacific Islands including Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia. About half of the species are native to Australia.

Diana Comm. ex Lam.