The Iris Family, Iridaceae

Alophia	Aristea	Afrocrocus-->	Babiana	Bobartia
Calydorea	Chasmanthe	Cipura	Cobana-->	Crocosmia
Crocus	Cypella	Devia	Dierama	Dietes
Diplarrena[[Ird.IrdDiplarrena][Ird.IrdDiplarrena][]]	Duthiastrum-->	Eleutherine	Ennealophus-->	Ferraria
Freesia	Geissorhiza	Gelasine	Geosiris-->	Gladiolus
Herbertia	Hesperantha	Hesperosiphion	Iris	Isophysis-->
Ixia	Klattia	Lapeirousia	Larentia	Libertia
Mastigostyla-->	Melasphaerula	Micranthus	Moraea	Nemastylis
Neomarica	Nivenia	Olsinium	Orthrosanthus-->	Patersonia
Pillansia-->	Pseudotrimezia-->	Radinosiphon-->	Romulea	Salpingostylis-->
Savannosiphon-->	Sisyrnchium	Solenomelus	Sparaxis	Syringodea
Tapeinia	Thereianthus	Tigridia	Trimezia	Tritonia
Tritoniopsis-->	Watsonia	Witsenia	Xenoscapa-->	Zygotritonia

The Iris family is one of the larger families in the class Monocotyledonae, order Asparagales, and filled with ornamental plants. The Genus Iris is the type genus for the family. The family is so large that it is broken up into subfamilies and many of those into tribes. The Genus Iris is in the tribe Irideae in the subfamily Iridoideae:

• Subfamily Isophysidoideae, one Genus, Isophysis with 1 species
• Subfamily Patersonioideae, one Genus, Patersonia with 21 species
• Subfamily Geosiridoideae, one Genus, Geosiris with 2 species
• Subfamily Aristeodeae, one Genus, Aristea with about 55 species
• Subfamily Nivenioideae, three Genera, Nivenia, Klattia, and Witsenia with 15 species
• Subfamily Crocoideae, twenty-nine Genera, with 1,010 species in five Tribes:
  • Tribe Tritoniopsideae, Genus Tritoniopsis
  • Tribe Watsonieae, Genera- Zygotritonia, Savannosiphon, Lapeirousia, Pillansia, Thereianthus, Micranthus, Watsonia.
  • Tribe Gladioleae, Genera-Gladiolus, Melasphaerula.
  • Tribe Freesiae, Genera-Crocosmia, Devia, Freesia, Xenoscapa.
  • Tribe Croceae, Genera-Radinosiphon, Romulea, Afrocrocus, Syringodea, Crocus, Geissorhiza, Hesperantha, Babiana, Chasmanthe, Sparaxis, Duthieastrum, Tritonia, Ixia, Dierama,
• Subfamily _Iridoideae_ . 30 Genera, about 890 species, in five tribes:
  • Tribe Diplarreneae; Genus Diplarrena
  • Tribe Irideae; Genera- Iris, Dietes, Bobartia, Ferraria, Moraea
  • Tribe Sisyrinchieae; Genera- Libertia, Orthosanthus, Olsynium, Sisyrinchium, Solenomelus, Tapeinia
  • Tribe Trimezieae; Genera-Trimezia, Pseudotrimezia, Neomarica
  • Tribe Tigridieae; Genera- Alophia, Calydorea, Cipura, Cobana, Cypella, Eleutherine, Ennealophus, Gelasine, Herbertia, Hesperoxiphion, Larentia, Mastigostyla, Nemastylis, Salpingostylis, Tigridia

References; The Iris family continues to undergo a lot of revision. The most current mongraph on the subject is The Iris Family, Natural History and Classification by Peter Goldblatt & John Manning, Timber Press 2008. For a current update on the taxonomy one can go to http://www.mobot.org/mobot/research/apweb/welcome.html

related links.....Botanical Classification

Note: There has always been disagreement in what constitutes a genus. Recently several papers have been published suggesting the Genus Iris should be split into 23 separate genera. This is not new. Historically there have been Several Genera that have been synonyms of current Sections or Series of the Genus Iris. Some include:

References for Iridaceae

-- Main.RPries - 2010-02-03