 The earliest species that is now assigned to "Hymenonema" was from the Cyclades and described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus as "Catananche graeca".In 1817 Henri Cassini described "Hymenonema tournefortii", which is now considered a synonym of "Catananche graeca" L..In 1838 Augustin Pyramus de Candolle considered "C. graeca" was too deviant to remain in "Catananche" and moved the species to Cassini's genus, recombining it with Linnaeus' epithet to "Hymenonema graecum".