Russell,

Thank you! Amaryllidaceae is the family  I remember Hemerocallis belonging to from the 1990s when I began my studies. Odd that my books show Liliaceae.

Kitty

Hemerocallis has typically been placed in the Amaryllidaceae.  New phylogenetic data (DNA, etc.) are causing major taxonomic realignments.  For example, some taxononomists now lump the Scrophulariaceae into the Plantaginaceae.  This craziness will no doubt continue as more data comes in.

Russell

So, once again I had someone ask me a question about their lilies and what they were saying didn’t make sense to me. I finally realized they meant daylilies.

 

I’ve always known that Lilies and Daylilies aren’t even in the same family but, offhand I couldn’t recall what family Hemerocallis was in so I pulled up MOBOT and told this friend that hems are in the Asphodelaceae family while real lilies are in the Liliaceae family.

 

As  I was about to go to bed tonight, the name Asphodelaceae was bugging me so I decided to look it up in my 18 yr old American Horticulture Society book. AHS says Hemerocallis is in the Liliaceae family!  So I cross-checked with my really old Hortus Third. Same answer, Liliaceae.

 

Hmmm…so, back online, I went to the RHS site and they show it’s the Asphodelaceae family. And then on to Wikipedia to find that Hemerocallis are members of Asphodelaceae’s subfamily Hemerocallidoideae.

 

Ok, the question - - when did Hemerocallis change families? What I find odd is that even in the 1990s I knew these two plants weren’t in the same family, but AHS & H3 don’t bear that out. Why?

 

Anyone?

 

Kitty

(the silly things that can keep one up at night!)

-- 

Russell Stafford

Odyssey Bulbs

r*@odysseybulbs.com

401-400-3706