For several decades plants of this genus were considered part of the otherwise Asian genus Disporum. Studies of morphology and cytology, as well as genetic analysis, show these North American plants to be different from the Asian species, and in 1995 the two groups began to be recognized as distinct genera.[5][4]Prosartes included five species until 2010, when a sixth, Prosartes parvifolia, long considered a variant of Prosartes hookeri, or perhaps a hybrid, was acknowledged as a distinct species.[6]
These plants are rhizomatous herbs with bell-like pendent (hanging) flowers.[4]
^Shinwari, Z.K.; Terauchi, R.; Utech, F.H. & Kawano, S. (1994), "Recognition of the New World Disporum Section Prosartes as Prosartes (Liliaceae) Based on the Sequence Data of the rbcL Gene", Taxon, 43 (3): 353–366, doi:10.2307/1222713, JSTOR1222713
^Mesler, M., et al. (2010). A resurrection for Siskiyou Bells, Prosartes parvifolia (Liliaceae), a rare Siskiyou Mountains endemic. Madroño 57:2 129-35.
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