Talk:Veratrum

Common names

 * In English they are known as the false hellebores or corn lilies. However, they are not closely related to lilies or hellebores, nor do they resemble them.

I propose rewriting / expanding and clarifying the above sentence. I agree that "False hellebore" is a peculiar name in that they do not resemble hellebores nor are they closely related to them, and their naming is a puzzle, (and is why I ended up on this page -- unsatisfied).

However, "corn lily" is the common name of the family to which this plant belongs, along with other plants such as "Beargrass" (Xerophyllum) and "Deathcamas". Corn lily makes sense, as they grow and almost look like old-world millet and new-world maize -- both called "corn" at different times -- and if they do not resemble the showy large-flowered lilium, they definately look like many flowers more broadly clustered in the lily order which has only been subdivided as multiple families for around a century -- long after corn lily came into common name acceptance.

Thus, I propose adding "corn lily" to the common name here -- as described under Bear Grass -- and adding more discussion -- such as appears in the introduction to death camas,.

As a side note, while I'd hope to avoid a discussion as lengthy as Talk:Corn (disambiguation), I'd welcome a bit more interest in the suggestion, now ten years old, that there would be added a lily disambiguation page Talk:Lilium

GeeBee60 (talk) 17:09, 21 October 2016 (UTC)