[2][3] Monocot classification has undergone significant revision in the past decade, and recent classification systems (including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group) have found Phormium to be closely related to daylilies (Hemerocallis), placing it in family Asphodelaceae, subfamily Hemerocallidoideae.

[5] The name Phormium comes from Ancient Greek for a "basket", while tenax is a Latin adjective meaning "holding fast, tenacious".

There are numerous variegated cultivars with leaves marked by contrasting stripes in shades of green, red, bronze, pink and yellow.

In November (in New Zealand) they produce clumps of curving tube-like flowers which turn bright red when mature.

Both species have been widely distributed to temperate regions of the world as economic fibre and ornamental plants.

As early as the 1920s it was recognised that ploidy plays a role in some cultivars due to the work of John Stuart Yeates.