Lilaea scilloidesGenus: 1 species.
English: flowering quillwort; Awl-leaf lilaea; Lilaea.
Region: Americas, introduced in Australia.
Taxonomy: in debate, sometimes assigned to its own family Lilaeaceae, others keeping it in
Juncaginaceae.
Botany: aquatic, annual herb; habitat shallow aquatic, vernal pools, mudflats, ditches; forms of a tuft of basal leaves around a very short stem; leaves onionlike, very narrow, long, pointed, ± 30 centimeters long; inflorescences includes clusters of staminate and bisexual flowers at the tip of a narrow stalk as well as pistillate flowers in underwater axils; pistillate flower with athreadlike style, up to 20 centimeters long, tipped with a stigma which floats on the water surface; fruit is a beaked, ribbed nutlet up to 1 centimeter long.