The Iris Family, Iridaceae
Alphabetical list of Genera
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:
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The Iris Family includes 7 subfamilies, 10 tribes, and 65 Genera:
- 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
Iris and the Genera split from it
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:
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Library of Iridaceae Literature other than Genus Iris
-- Main.RPries - 2010-02-03