The older usage of the family Liliaceae was an all-inclusive collection of plants that are considered in most recent classifications to belong to many families in at least two Orders, Asparagales and Liliales. The Amaryllidaceae are now considered part of the Asparagales.
Besides the familiar Dutch Hybrid amaryllis (Hippeastrum), other members of this family include the daffodils (Narcissus), snowdrops (Galanthus), rain lilies (Habranthus and Zephyranthes), nerines (Nerine), the Aztec lilies (Sprekelia), Oxblood Lilies (Rhodophiala), Lycoris, spider lilies (Hymenocallis), and crinums (Crinum). Also members of this family are the blood lilies (Haemanthus and Scadoxus), the clivias (Clivia), and the rare "Blue amaryllis," Worsleya. Cyrtanthus is a genus of tropical and southern Africa which includes the well-known Scarborough Lily. Hymenocallis, the white spider lilies, are native to Central American, Mexico, and the Southern United States. The botanical genus Amaryllis is the Cape Belladonna, native to South Africa.
The boundaries of the amaryllis family are sometimes stretched or shrunk to include other related groups. Recently, taxonomists have submerged the amaryllis family into Alliaceae, the Onion Family. I chose to retain the Amaryllidaceae as a separate taxonomic entity.
Visit the new Great Lakes Bulb Society home page.