Lilium is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. Most species are native to the temperate northern hemisphere, though their range extends into the northern subtropics. Many other plants have "lily" in their common names, but do not belong to the same genus and are therefore not true lilies.
The lily family, Liliaceae, consists of about 15 genera and 610 species of flowering plants within the order Liliales. They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a fair amount of morphological diversity despite genetic similarity. Common characteristics include large flowers with parts arranged in threes: with six colored or patterned petaloid tepals arranged in two whorls, six stamens and a superior ovary. The leaves are linear in shape, with their veins usually arranged parallel to the edges, single and arranged alternating on the stem, or in a rosette at the base. Most species are grown from bulbs, although some have rhizomes. First described in 1789, the lily family became a paraphyletic "catch-all" (wastebasket) group of petaloid monocots that did not fit into other families and included a great number of genera now included in other families and in some cases in other orders. Consequently, many sources and descriptions labelled "Liliaceae" deal with the broader sense of the family.
Lilium candidum, the Madonna lily, or white lily is a plant in the true lily family. It is native to the Balkans and Middle East, and naturalized in other parts of Europe, including France, Italy, and Ukraine, and in North Africa, the Canary Islands, Mexico, and other regions. It has been cultivated since antiquity, for at least 3,000 years, and has great symbolic value since then for many cultures. It is susceptible to several virus diseases common to lilies, and especially to Botrytis fungus. One technique to avoid problems with viruses is to grow plants from seed instead of bulblets.
Lilium martagon, the martagon lily or Turk's cap lily, is a Eurasian species of lily. It has a widespread native region extending from Portugal east through Europe and Asia as far east as Mongolia.
Cardiocrinum is a genus of bulbous plants of the lily family first described in 1846. They are native to the Himalaya, China, the Russian Far East, and Japan. The bulbs are usually formed at the soil surface. The preferred habitat is woodland. The plants tend to be monocarpic, dying after flowering.
Lilium ledebourii is a rare Asian species of plants in the lily family. It was named for German-Estonian botanist Carl Friedrich von Ledebour (1786-1851). Its native range is the Talish region of Azerbaijan, and Damasch in the Amarlu region of Iran.
Hemerocallis fulva, the orange day-lily, tawny daylily, corn lily, tiger daylily, fulvous daylily, ditch lily or Fourth of July lily, is a species of daylily native to Asia. It is very widely grown as an ornamental plant in temperate climates for its showy flowers and ease of cultivation. It is not a true lily in the genus Lilium, but gets its name from the superficial similarity of its flowers to Lilium and from the fact that each flower lasts only one day.
The Circumboreal Region in phytogeography is a floristic region within the Holarctic Kingdom in Eurasia and North America, as delineated by such geobotanists as Josias Braun-Blanquet and Armen Takhtajan.
Lilium pumilum is an Asian species of bulbous plants native to Mongolia, Siberia, the Russian Far East, Korea and northern China.
Lilium cernuum is a species of lily native to Korea, the Primorye region of Russia, and northeastern China.
Lilium monadelphum is a bulbous plant native to Crimea and to North and South Caucasus.
Lilium pensylvanicum is an Asian plant species of the family Liliaceae. Sometimes called the Siberian lily, it is native to a cold climate and needs frost in the winter. It is found in the wild form in Siberia, the Russian Far East, Mongolia, northeast China, Korea and Hokkaidō.
Lilium medeoloides is an East Asian herb in the lily family. It is native to Zhejiang Province in China, Jeju-do in Korea, and eastern Russia, where it grows in forests and on grassy and rocky subalpine areas.
Lilium hansonii, known as Hanson's lily and Japanese turk's-cap lily, is an East Asian species of plants in the lily family. It is native to Korea, Japan, and to Jilin Province in northeastern China, as well as being widely cultivated as an ornamental.
Lilium distichum is an Asian species herbaceous plant of the lily family which is native to northeastern China, Korea, and eastern Russia.
Lilium concolor is a species of flowering plant in the lily family which occurs naturally in China, Japan, Korea and Russia. Its relationship with other species is not clear, although it has some similarities to Lilium pumilum.
The Lilioideae are a subfamily of monocotyledonous perennial, herbaceous mainly bulbous flowering plants in the lily family, Liliaceae. They are found predominantly in the temperate and colder regions of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly East Asia and North America. The subfamily includes two tribes. They are of economic importance, particularly the lilies and tulips.
The taxonomy of Liliaceae has had a complex history since the first description of this flowering plant family in the mid-eighteenth century. Originally, the Liliaceae or Lily family were defined as having a "calix" (perianth) of six equal-coloured parts, six stamens, a single style, and a superior, three-chambered (trilocular) ovary turning into a capsule fruit at maturity. The taxonomic circumscription of the family Liliaceae progressively expanded until it became the largest plant family and also extremely diverse, being somewhat arbitrarily defined as all species of plants with six tepals and a superior ovary. It eventually came to encompass about 300 genera and 4,500 species, and was thus a "catch-all" and hence paraphyletic taxon. Only since the more modern taxonomic systems developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) and based on phylogenetic principles, has it been possible to identify the many separate taxonomic groupings within the original family and redistribute them, leaving a relatively small core as the modern family Liliaceae, with fifteen genera and 600 species.
Lilium rhodopeum is a European species of plants in the lily family. It is endemic to the Rhodopi Mountains of Bulgaria and Greece, where it is found in alpine meadows and on mountain slopes. It is as critically endangered and listed as an IUCN red list threatened species. This Balkan endemic can be found in Bulgaria and Greece where it is native to the Rhodopi mountains from which it takes it name.
Cardiocrinum cordatum is a Northeast Asian species of plants in the lily family. It is native to Japan and to certain Russian islands in the Sea of Okhotsk.
