Various Classifications Of Garden Lilies - From Botanical To Floristic. Description, Photo

2023 Author: Ava Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 07:13

Of the more than 100 species of lilies found in nature, just over three dozen are grown as garden plants. But species lilies are very rare today. In fact, only narrow-leaved, white and royal lilies remained common plants. Most of the lilies grown in gardens are hybrids and varietal plants. It is not at all easy to understand their classifications. More than three thousand plant varieties and complex interspecific crosses have changed the classifications beyond recognition and gave rise to a huge number of variations and criteria for evaluating species and classes of lilies.

Content:

• Historical reference
• Botanical classifications
• Official garden classification of lilies
• Classification of lilies according to the degree of "antiquity"
• Classification of lilies by winter hardiness
• Floristic classification of lilies

Historical reference

Graceful, fragrant, beautiful lilies are perceived by many as almost perfect flowering garden plants. Elegant queens, some of the most ancient and prestigious plants, really deserve their special reputation.

Lilies received their recognition several millennia ago. Their name is mentioned by ancient Greek and Roman philosophers and poets, and the divine origin of lilies was "recorded" by ancient Greek myths. According to them, the lilies grew from drops of milk of the wife of Zeus, the goddess Hera.

For another 4 tbsp. BC e. lily was glorified as a medicinal plant by Hippocrates, and Dioscorides consolidated the irreplaceable status of white lilies in his writings. In ancient Rome, lilies were the most respected flowering plants after roses, an invariable symbol and the main decoration of temples and festivities in honor of the goddess Flora.

Even then, lilies were perceived as a symbol of purity and purity, and in many respects this meaning in heraldry and in floristry has not lost these flowers even today, as well as the ancient Roman status of a symbol of sophistication and luxury. The capital of Ancient Persia, beautiful Susa, was even named after this plant and was known as the "city of lilies".

In Ancient Egypt, the lily and its images were perceived as a symbol of freedom, hope and the transience of life. With the spread of Christianity, the status of the lily only strengthened. After all, it was her flowers that became the symbol of the Virgin Mary, and the snow-white lily received its middle name - the lily of the Madonna. This plant became the emblem of the French kings in the Middle Ages.

The botanical name Lilium, of course, this flowering legend received much later, during the first introduction into official documents of the snow-white lily (Lilium candidum). The roots of the name "lily" go back either to the ancient Gaulish "white-white", or to the ancient Greek "white", and some sources even appeal to the ancient Celtic "whiteness".

Botanical classifications

Botanical classifications are almost not applicable in landscape design (and are not used even in lily breeding centers). Lilies in them are divided not only by the structure of the flower, but also by a dozen other criteria, combining them into sections, sections and groups.

The international botanical classification of lilies divides them into sections and belongs to the authorship of G. Comber. It was developed back in 1949 and is considered official. Lilies, according to her, are divided into sections:

• Section 1. Martagon, of which the martagon is a typical lily.
• Section 2. Pseudolirium with the type Philadelphia lily, divided into three more subsections according to the habitat of the species.
• Section 3. Liriotypus with the typical snow-white lily.
• Section 4. Archelirion, typical lily - golden lily.
• Section 5. Sinomartagon, typical species - lily of David, is divided into 3 subsections.
• Section 6. Leucolirion with a typical species of long-flowered lily.
• Section 7. Daurolirion with the type species of Pennsylvania lily.

The domestic version even provides for the allocation of 11 sections, the names of which never appear in catalogs.

Official garden classification of lilies

Garden classifications are much more convenient, because they combine lilies into sections, not only according to indistinguishable characteristics or origin. All plants in them are similar in winter hardiness, resistance, requirements for care, methods of reproduction. And it is the section that is usually indicated in catalogs and garden centers for each variety and type of lilies.

The official gardening classification of lilies was adopted by the Royal Society and consolidated by the International Lily Register much later. This classification was published in 1982. It is convenient for both inexperienced growers and professionals, created to make it easier to navigate in the assortment of varieties when choosing plants for your garden.

The international gardening classification divides lilies into 8 sections:

1. Asian hybrids (Asiatic Hybrids) - a legendary and very popular range of early flowering, unpretentious and frost-resistant lilies, varieties in which are obtained by crossing species of Asian origin lilies.
2. Tubular hybrids (Trumpet Hybrids) are late-flowering varieties of Asian lilies that require special conditions, pleasantly surprising in frost resistance and disease resistance.
3. American hybrids (American Hybrids, sometimes they are called Orleans hybrids) trace their history from the leopard and Canadian lilies, flaunt with exotic flowers of very bright colors. Very difficult to care for, but frost-resistant varieties.
4. Martagon hybrids (Martagon Hybrids) - varieties of curly lilies with delicate drooping flowers on very high peduncles, very winter-hardy and resistant.
5. Hybrids of Candidum or Snow-white lily (Candidum Hybrids) - with white or yellow elegant-classic flowers of graceful shape, somewhat unstable and sun-loving.
6. Long-flowered hybrids (Longiflorum Hybrids) are frost-resistant greenhouse and greenhouse varieties with fragrant white flowers, ideal candidates for forcing, very thermophilic, wintering with shelter.
7. Oriental hybrids (Oriental Hybrids) - the most difficult in the cultivation of varieties with strongly recurved petals back and amazingly strong flavor, which is not accidentally called exotic lilies.

8. Intersectional hybrids obtained by mixing plants from different sections:

• LA hybrids - a subsection of varieties obtained from the crossing of Asian and long-flowered lilies - appeared only at the end of the last century, they are distinguished by very large flowers, aroma, growth rate, endurance and early flowering dates.
• OT hybrids are varieties obtained by crossing oriental and tubular hybrids;
• LO-hybrids - varieties obtained by crossing oriental and long-flowered hybrids;
• OA hybrids are obtained by crossing oriental and Asian hybrids;
• LP hybrids are obtained by crossing long-flowered and tubular lilies;
• AA hybrids, crossing American and Asian hybrids.

Sometimes the classification is supplemented with two more sections:

1. Species lilies and natural forms.
2. Lilies not included in other sections.

Classification of lilies according to the degree of "antiquity"

Very interesting is the classification of lilies according to the degree of "antiquity" - the periods of introduction into culture and the history of their use as ornamental plants. Thanks to her, it is easy to trace the entire path of the beautiful lilies to the status of a classic garden plant and the process behind the confusion of modern classifications.

According to the historical classification, lilies are divided into three categories.

Ancient species

The ancient species include three types of lilies, which began to grow as ornamental plants in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome:

1. Snow-white lily, or Madonna's lily (Lilium candidum), which was cultivated even BC. e.
2. Curly lily (Lilium martagon)
3. Lily of Chalcedon (Lilium chalcedonicum)

Medieval and Renaissance lilies

Medieval and Renaissance lilies were introduced to culture in the 16th and 17th centuries. It:

1. Lilium Bulbiferum or bulbonosnaya, formerly known as lily orange (Lilium bulbiferum, synonym Lilium aurantiacum);
2. Canadian lily (Lilium canadense).

In addition, these are the first Asiatic lilies brought to Europe, discovered in the 18th and 19th centuries:

1. Pennsylvanian lily (Lilium pensylvanicum), this species includes the previously considered as a separate species Daurian lily (Lilium dauricum);
2. Dwarf lily (Lilium pumilum);
3. Narrow-leaved lily (Lilium lancifolium), the species also includes the legendary tiger lily (Lilium tigrinum);
4. Long-flowered lily (Lilium longiflorum);
5. Japanese lily (Lilium japonicum);
6. Spotted lily (Lilium maculatum);
7. Beautiful lily (Lilium speciosum)
8. Callous lily (Lilium callosum)

Lilies discovered or bred in the 20th century

The following lilies belong to this category:

1. Royal lily (Lilium regale);
2. Lily Sargent (Lilium sargentiae);
3. A group of Orleans, or American hybrids, which began its history from the first hybrid based on the Sargent lily;
4. Group of Asian hybrids;
5. Group of Tubular Hybrids;
6. Group of Oriental hybrids;
7. A group of LA hybrids or varieties that appeared after crossing the long-flowered lily and Asian species or hybrids;
8. Other interspecific hybrids.

Classification of lilies by winter hardiness

For regions with severe winters, the winter hardiness of the lily itself plays an important role. And the choice of a species or variety from those suitable for cultivation in open soil is not an easy task.

According to the degree of winter hardiness (and the need for shelter for the winter), lilies are conventionally divided into 2 groups:

1. Lilies requiring protection for the winter, careful preparation. Among the species that can winter in open soil in the middle lane only with a shelter are Japanese lily, golden lily, and some others.
2. Hardy lilies that grow without proper cover. The most hardy species include onion lily, white, narrow-leaved, etc.

Floristic classification of lilies

The floristic classification of lilies is used mainly by those who grow these plants for bouquets. According to her, all lilies are conventionally divided into cut, universal and garden lilies.

Cultivars that require special agricultural technology and a culture of closed ground, most often thermophilic species with complex care, which fully compensate for the beauty of flowering, are ranked among the cut ones.

Lilies are called universal, which can be grown both as cut and as garden plants. Among the purely garden species and varieties are those lilies whose inflorescences are unstable or not interesting enough for floristry (although flowers of any lily cannot be called ineffective, and this affiliation is rather conditional). Garden lilies are also often called unpretentious lilies with high winter hardiness.