Editing Liliaceae (section)

== Culture ==

=== Lilies ===
{{multiple image |align = right |direction = vertical |width = 180 |image2 = Lilium candidum 1.jpg |caption2 = ''[[Lilium candidum]]'' (Madonna lily) |image1= Meister des Frankfurter Paradiesgärtleins 001.jpg |caption1= Lilies (far right) growing in the ''[[Paradiesgärtlein]]'', ''[[Meister des Frankfurter Paradiesgärtleins]]'' {{circa|1410}}}}
The type genus, Lily (''[[Lilium]]''), has a long history in literature and art, and a tradition of [[symbol]]ism as well as becoming a [[Lily (name)|popular female name]], and a [[floral emblem]], particularly of [[France]] ([[#Fleur-de-lis|fleur-de-lis]]). The cultivation of lilies has been described since at least the ninth century, when [[Charlemagne]] ordered it to be grown at his imperial palaces.<ref name=Kandeler/> However, the name 'lily' has historically been applied to a wide variety of plants other than the genus ''Lilium''.

The lily appears in ancient literature associated with both sovereignty and virginal innocence, and is mentioned on a number of occasions in the [[Bible]], such as the description in Solomon's [[Song of Songs]] (2, 1–2) "''I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the young women''" or the [[Gospel of Mathew]] (6, 28) "''Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin''" to represent beauty. Artistic representations can be found as far back as [[frescos]] from the second century BC, at [[Amnisos]] and [[Knossos]]. Early Christian churches, such as that of the [[Basilica of Sant' Apollinare in Classe]] were sometimes decorated with lilies. While predominantly depicted as white, those seen at [[Akrotiri (prehistoric city)|Akrotiri]] are red lilies. The white lily has long been seen as a symbol of purity, coming to be associated with the [[Virgin Mary]] in the [[Middle Ages]], from which came the name ‘Madonna lily’ (''[[Lilium candidum]]''). A well-known example is [[Leonardo da Vinci]]'s ''[[Annunciation (Leonardo)|Annunciation]]'' (1472–1475) in which the archangel [[Gabriel]] bears a Madonna lily. Other symbolic meanings include glory, love and birth.

==== Fleur-de-lis ====
{{main|Fleur-de-lis}}
[[File:Fleur de lys (or).svg|thumb|upright=0.45|left|Symbolic [[fleur-de-lis]]]]
The stylised lily, or ''fleur-de-lis'' (lily flower) has long been associated with royalty, although it may originally have been derived from the form of an [[iris (plant)|iris]]. It has also been associated with the head of a spear.<ref name="Sauvages1756"/> Its three parts have been associated with the three classes of mediaeval society,<ref name=Duby/> or alternatively faith, wisdom and chivalry.<ref name="MichaudPoujoulat1836"/> Whatever its exact derivation, it has come to be associated with France and the French monarchy since the earliest [[Franks|Frankish]] kings. Consequently, it became incorporated into not only French [[heraldry]] but also into many heraldic devices in jurisdictions where there had been historic French influence, such as [[Quebec]] and [[New Orleans]]. In modern times it appears in many forms, symbolic and decorative, and can be used on [[compass rose|compasses]] to indicate the direction north, as well as the [[Fleur-de-lis in Scouting|Scouting]] movement.

=== Tulips ===
{{main|Tulip Mania}}
[[File:Istanbul, Hagia Sophia, Allah.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|''[[Allah]]'', [[Hagia Sophia]], [[Istanbul]]]]
[[File:Dish with a spray of tulips, roses, and hyacinths, Turkey, Iznik, about 1600 AD, composite body, underglaze-painted - Huntington Museum of Art - DSC05013.JPG|thumb|left|upright=0.8|[[Ceramic art|Ceramic]] dish, [[Iznik]] ca. 1600, with tulips, roses and hyacinths]]
Tulips (''[[Tulipa]]'') also have a long cultural tradition, particularly in the [[Islamic]] world. The [[Persian language|Persian]] word for tulips, ''lâleh'' ({{lang|fa|لاله}}), was borrowed into [[Turkish language|Turkish]] and [[Arabic]] as  ''lale''. In [[Arabic letters]], ''lale'' is written with the same letters as ''[[Allah]]'', and is used to denote God symbolically. Tulips became widely used in decorative [[Motif (visual arts)|motifs]] on [[tiles]], [[fabrics]], and [[ceramic art|ceramics]] in [[Islamic art]] and the [[Ottoman Empire]] in particular,<ref name="Christenhusz"/> and were revered in poetry, such as that of [[Omar Khayam]] in the twelfth century.<ref name="Christenhusz"/><ref name=pavord/>

Tulips were an essential part of the gardens of [[Persia]], having been cultivated from the [[Eurasian Steppe|Steppes]]. As the [[Seljuks]] – [[Oghuz-Turkic]] leaders originated from the steppes – moved to Persia, and then west, they took tulips with them to [[Turkey]], where many escaped cultivation and became [[Naturalization (biology)|naturalised]]. Today there are a number of places in Turkey called ''[[Laleli (disambiguation)|Laleli]]'' (‘with tulips’). Tulips first appeared in the decorative arts in Turkey in the thirteenth century and flourished under the Ottomans, in particular in the [[Topkapı Palace|royal palaces]], and was adopted by the [[Ottoman dynasty|Osmans]] as their symbol. Further species were collected from Persia and the spreading Ottoman Empire saw to it that tulip culture also spread. By the sixteenth century it was a national symbol, hence the designation "[[Tulip era]]", by which time they were becoming of economic importance.<ref name="Christenhusz"/>

By 1562 the tulip trade had reached Europe with the first shipment to [[Antwerp]],<ref name=Harvey/> where they were mistaken for vegetables,<ref name="Dash2010">{{cite book|first=Mike |last=Dash|title=Tulipomania: The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower & the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=piXqsiQ4h1QC&pg=PA36|date=10 February 2010|publisher=Crown Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-56082-7|pages=36–|access-date=15 October 2016|archive-date=7 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140707151523/http://books.google.com/books?id=piXqsiQ4h1QC&pg=PA36|url-status=live}}</ref>  although they had been cultivated in Portugal since 1530, and first appeared in illustration in 1559, and the first tulip flowers were seen in the [[Netherlands]] in 1625. Tulips spread rapidly across Europe in the seventeenth century, and became an important trading item, initially in France before concentrating in the Netherlands.<ref name="Christenhusz"/><ref name=Upchurch/> Eventually speculative trading in tulips became so intense as to cause a [[Economic bubble|financial bubble]] which eventually collapsed, a period known as [[tulip mania]] (tulipomania), from 1634 to 1637,<ref name=Blunt/><ref>{{cite book |last=Goldgar |first=Anne |title=Tulipmania: money, honor, and knowledge in the Dutch golden age |date=2007 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=9780226301303 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gViwLbCJ7X0C |access-date=21 February 2015 |archive-date=6 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190406064305/https://books.google.com/books?id=gViwLbCJ7X0C |url-status=live }}</ref> similar to the Ottoman Empire's Tulip era.

Nevertheless, since then the tulip has become indelibly associated with the Netherlands and all things Dutch. it was during this period that the [[tulipiere]], a [[ceramic]] vase for growing tulips indoors was devised, and the [[Dutch Golden Age painting|Golden Age of Dutch Painting]] was replete with images of tulips. Although [[tulip festival]]s are held around the world in the spring, the most famous of these is the display at [[Keukenhof]]. One of the better-known novels on tulips is ''[[The Black Tulip]]'' by [[Alexandre Dumas, père]] in 1850, dealing with a contest to grow a black tulip in late seventeenth-century [[Haarlem]].

=== Other ===
''[[Fritillaria]]'' are also often used as [[floral emblem]]s, for instance as the county flower of [[Oxfordshire]], UK.<ref name="countyflower"/> ''[[Calochortus nuttallii]]'', the sego lily, is the official [[List of U.S. state flowers|state flower]] of [[Utah]].