xanthorrhoeaceae

For a phylogeny of the family see the phylogenetic tree at Xanthorrhoeaceae.

The family Xanthorrhoeaceae has had a complex history; its circumscription and placement in an order have varied widely.

(It has also been placed in the Xanthorrhoeaceae.)

The Xanthorrhoeaceae are monocots, part of order Asparagales.

The Xanthorrhoeaceae, or grasstree, family has been recognized by most taxonomists, but the limits of the family have varied greatly.

It has formerly been assigned to the family Dasypogonaceae, Xanthorrhoeaceae or Liliaceae.

When it was published in 2009, the families Xanthorrhoeaceae, Amaryllidaceae, and Asparagaceae, were greatly expanded.

The only stable classification over time has been of the genus Xanthorrhoea, which has remained within Xanthorrhoeaceae.

Family Xanthorrhoeaceae Dumort.

The 1986 Flora of Australia was based on Cronquist's classification and placed 10 genera within Xanthorrhoeaceae.

In one paper on the classification of Xanthorrhoeaceae, Dianella and six other genera were subsumed in the genus Phormium.

Three separate families were at one time recognized (e.g. in the first APG system of 1998): Asphodelaceae, Hemerocallidaceae and Xanthorrhoeaceae.

In the past it has also been assigned to the families Liliaceae and Aloeaceae, as well as the family Asphodelaceae, before this was merged into the Xanthorrhoeaceae.

Bedford et al. acknowledged at the time that some authors, such as Dahlgren et al. (1985), were segregating the 10 genera into two or three separate families, rather than grouping them all under Xanthorrhoeaceae.

Based on phylogenetic research, the latest (2009) revision of the APG classification groups together the former families Hemerocallidaceae, Xanthorrhoeaceae sensu stricto and Asphodelaceae as the Xanthorrhoeaceae.

A review of the systematics of the group, using anatomical and molecular data, led to the conclusion that four of the 10 genera should be placed in the family Dasypogonaceae and five in the family Lomandraceae, leaving only Xanthorrhoea in Xanthorrhoeaceae prior to the APG expansion.