Melanthiales Link (melanthoid lilies) was an order of monocotyledons, whose name and botanical authority is derived by typification from the description of the type family, Melanthiaceae by Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link in 1829.
In his 1985 revision he elevated the family to the order Melanthiales by taking two closely related genera, Campynemanthe and Campynemanthe from the Colchicaceae and creating the family Campynemaceae, (most other authors have preferred Campynemataceae), and then placing Melanthiaceae and Campynemaceae together to form Melanthiales sensu Dahlgren.
Later, Melanthiales was included by Takhtajan in the 2009 revision of his system as an order of superorder Lilianae (as the Liliiflorae were renamed).
[4] Overall, the taxonomic history has been complex, and has included positioning this group as a subfamily (Melanthioideae) within the family Liliaceae sensu lato.
[8][9] These transfers represent one of the few departures of the modern system from Dahlgren's radical reorganisation of the Lilianae superorder.