Lilianae (also known as Liliiflorae) is a botanical name for a superorder (that is, a rank higher than that of order) of flowering plants. Such a superorder of necessity includes the type family Liliaceae (and usually the type order Liliales). Terminations at the rank of superorder are not standardized by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), although the suffix -anae has been proposed.

Lilianae, introduced in 1966 as a name for a superorder, progressively replaced the older term Liliiflorae, introduced in 1825 as a name for an order.

Liliiflorae was a term introduced by Carl Adolph Agardh in 1825 as a higher order to include the Liliaceae (which he called Coronariae) and related families. Argadh, together with De Candolle developed the concept of ordered botanical ranks, in this case grouping together De Jussieu's (1789) recently defined collections of genera (families) into higher order groupings (orders). However, at the time what are now known as families were referred to by the term ordo, and in Argadh's nomenclature these were grouped into classes.

While De Jussieu placed the type family or ordo, Lilia together with seven other ordines in the Classis, Stamina Perigyna of the Monocotyledones (monocots), de Candolle, who called the type family Liliacées in French, considered them to belong within those vascular plants (Vasculares) whose vascular bundles were thought to arise from within (Endogènes, endogenous), a term he preferred to Monocotylédonés. Jussieu's Monocotyledones thus became the Phanérogames, meaning "visible seed", hence Endogenæ phanerogamæ. De Candolle's Phanérogames thus defined included 22 familles. By contrast, Argadh's more specific grouping of classis Liliiflorae contained only ten families, and positioned the Liliiflorae within a larger grouping, the Cryptocotyledoneae (i.e. Endogènes).

A number of different terms were used successively to group together Liliaceae and related families, including Liliales (Lindley, 1853), Coronariae (Bentham and Hooker, 1883) and Liliinées (Van Tieghem, 1891), till Engler (1892) reintroduced Liliiflorae as a Reihe (order). This form of classification was continued by Wettstein (1901–1908) and Lotsy (1907–1911). A number of other authors preferred Liliales, including Warming (1912) and Bessey (1915), although Hallier (1912) preferred Liliiflorae. These were all essentially orders, groupings of families within the monocotyledons, with a few exceptions. Calestani (1933) created series, in three groupings with Liliaceae in one of three series making up Liranthae, while Hutchinson (1934, 1959) called these divisions, placing Liliaceae in the order Liliales, and division Corolliferae. In 1956 Kimura, in a many layered scheme, placed Liliaceae within the order Liliales as part of Liliiflorae, similarly Emberger's (1960) Liliiflores, although Melchior (1964) returned Liliiflorae to the rank of order. Very few of these classifications had much in common, other than nomenclature, being based on very different concepts of connections between characteristics.

The late 1960s saw a marked shift in the taxonomic treatment of this group, with the publication of four systems that would remain influential for the best part of the century, and which predominantly used the concept of superorder. These were the systems of Armen Takhtajan (1910–2009), Arthur Cronquist (1919–1992), Robert Thorne (1920–2015) and Rolf Dahlgren (1932–1987). In 1964 Zabinkova proposed formal rules for naming taxa above the rank of order, where superorders would end with the suffix -anae. In the same issue of Taxon Takhtajan utilised those suggested rules to outline a coherent hierarchical supraordinal classification, as follows.

Subdivisio Magnolicae (Angiospermae)

This was the first use of the term Lilianae by him, but was not formally described and hence attributed (superordo nov.) till 1966, when he published a formal monograph (in Russian, English translation available 1969) on the classification of the flowering plants. He considered Lilianae a synonym of Liliiforae. At the same time Cronquist and Takhtajan, who had worked closely together, jointly published a formal proposal in English for the nomenclature and classification of the supraordinal taxa, to the level of class.