This is a repeat of an article printed in our newsletter many years ago, I include it again due to the recent interest in local species.  MANY OF THESE PLANTS ARE LOCAL TO SW VICTORIA

To the lily family belong all the parallel-veined plants with a perianth of three petals and three sepals (often petal like) and the ovary (seed box) inside the flower.

• Flowers purple or mauve, Dichopogen, Thysanotus, Arthropodium
• Flowers, blue, small plant Chamaescilla
• Flowers blue, small alpine plant Herpolirion
• Flowers lilac-blue in spikes Caesia
• Flowers blue in branched clusters, tall plants Dianella, Stypandra
• Flowers white, stalk leafless Burchardias
• Flowers white, stalk with leaves, small plant Anguillaria
• Flowers white, stalk with leaves, berries blue, Drymophila
• Flowers yellow, plant fleshy Bulbine
• Flowers yellow or brown, plant not fleshy Tricoryne, Lomandra
• Flowers pink, Sowerbaea
• Flowers silvery-white, plant small Laxmannia
• Flowers cream, in long erect spikes, Xanthorrhoea
• Flowers lilac, plant prostrate, Schelhammera
• Tufted alpine plant, berries red, Astelia
• Climbing plant, Smilax, Geitonoplesium, Eustrephus

Arthropodium strictum Chocolate Lily
A slender plant with basal grassy leaves about 1cm wide. Smooth leafless stem 30 - 60 cm high, several times branched towards the top into racemes of light purple flowers about 2.5cm in diameter. Only 1 or 2 out at once in each raceme. The three petals are broad and membranous, slightly frilled edges, the sepals narrow, a little deeper purple, and the beards on the anthers are easily seen. Chocolate scented. Flowers continue to open on branchlets for some time and the globular fruit are held erect. Common in open grasslands in late spring.

Arthropodium fimbriatum Nodding Chocolate Lily
Similar to above but smaller, more rosy in colour and delicate in growth, under 30cm in height and unbranched. Strong vanilla scent.

Arthropodium milleflorum Pale Vanilla-lily
Habitat and habit like Chocolate lily but a taller, more branched plant with smaller, more numerous, very pale lilac flowers, and conspicuously fringed stamens. Many flowers together on slender jointed stalks. Slight vanilla scent.

Arthropodium minus Small Vanilla-lily
Found in Eastern Vic. smaller and unbranched. (3 other species (only numbered, not named) of Arthropodium are recognised in the Flora of Vic by Walsh and Entwisle) Vol 2 pages 658)

Thysanotus tuberosus Common Fringe-lily
Not so tall or robust as Chocolate lily, with inconspicuous slender basal leaves and erect leafless, wiry flower-stems, grey-green and slightly branched. Petals broad and rounded, deeply fringes an exquisite light or rosy purple, whilst the sepals are very narrow and dark purple. Although the flowers last only one day, the plants bloom a long time. Rather dry open forest.

Thysanotus patersonii Twining Fringe-lily
Has much smaller flowers on twining, almost leafless green stems. (There are other rarer species - T. juncifolius, baueri)

Chamaescilla corymbosa Blue Star
Usually a plant of 7.5 - 10cm with a tuft of soft, shining, channelled linear leaves and one or more slender branched flower-stems. The broad perianth segments are deep sky-blue and there is rarely more than one open at a time among the dull blue buds and spirally twisted indigo spent flowers. Each flower blooms for only a day.

Caesia vittata Blue Grass-lily
A tufted plant with limp grassy leaves, often as long as the flower-stems which are usually under 30cm high, rather stiffly erect. Flowers dull lilac-blue in small dense clusters, crowded along the upper part of the stem, becoming more scattered with age. Grassland flower C. parviflora (Pale Grass-lily) resembles this, but it is more slender, smaller, more slender with scattered pale or lavender flowers.

Stypandra glauca Nodding Blue-lily
This robust perennial grows in masses, especially among rocks in hilly country. Short grassy blue-green leaves broadest and sheathing at the base, stand out from the long stems which are usually bent or twisted, each ending in a raceme of clear blue hanging flowers. Each flower about 1.25cm across.

Stypandra caespitosa Tufted Blue-lily
Not unlike Dianella revoluta but with soft, light green leaves and much larger, more brilliant flowers. Leaves narrow, all basal, about 30cm long. Flowers stems erect and branched, starred with large bright blue flowers, stamens yellow. Flowers occasionally cream-coloured or white. Damp lowlands as well as mountains.

Dianella tasmanica Tasman Flax-lily
A forest plant with large tufts of basal leaves up to 2.5cm wide and 60cm long, with rough cutting edges and midrib. Flower-stems tough, slender, erect, standing well above the leaves, much branched, bearing rather small, starry dark or dull blue flowers on slender stalklets. Rich blue berries, falling readily.

Dianella revoluta, D laevis, D caerulra
Dianellas have under gone a revision with other new species being named. All seem to be great garden plants.

Burchardia umbellata Milkmaids
One or two linear leaves at the base of the single stem which is smooth and unbranched, reddish or green 15cm - 45cm high, with terminal umbel of rather large, round white flowers with a honey fragrance. The conspicuous angular ovary (often reddish) is ringed by minute dark stamens.

Wurmbea dioica Early Nancy
Slender plants with one or two erect leaves, sheathing the stem at the base like the spathe of a lily. Usually 5 - 6.7cm. The single stem bears a spike of several circular white flowers 1 - 2cm in diameter, usually ringed with black or purple near the centre, occasionally suffused with purple. Female flowers have a conspicuous triangular ovary, male flowers a ring of minute dark stamens, will some flowers have both ovary and stamens. Usually in open spaces, drifts of many together. The flowers have a sweet fragrance like plum blossom.

Bulbine bulbosa Bulbine Lily
Leaves linear, basal, withering early. Flower stem strong, often yellow, fleshy and erect, terminating in a spike of butter-yellow flowers, often orange or brown on back of petals, filaments bearded. Few open at a time, closing in dull weather. One plant may bloom for weeks, so fruits are developing at the base when top flowers open. Poisonous to stock.

Bulbine semibarbata Leek-lily
Is similar to above, but smaller and with only three filaments bearded.

Tricoryne elatior Yellow Rush-lily
Spreading plant about 30cm high with narrow leaves at base of very slender, wiry, branched stems, bearing over a long period clear yellow stars with woolly anthers. The flowers are in small groups on the ends of the branchlets.

Jean Galbraith included all the Lomandras in the lilies, but the latest Flora of Victoria includes them in the Xanthorrhoea family.

Sowerbaea juncea Rush Lily
The leafless unbranched flower-stems rise from 15cm to 60cm above a dense basal tuft of grey-green rush-like leaves, and terminate in a globular cluster of drooping lavender- pink flowers.

Astelia alpina Silver Astelia
Common in alpine and sub-alpine bogs, often called Pineapple grass from the shape of the leaves. The tufted dark green leaves, broad at the base and narrowing to the tip, are white fringed underneath and conspicuously fringed with white hairs. They surround a short erect raceme of small brownish flowers, followed on female plants by soft translucent red berries, nearly oblong, up to an inch long and pleasantly sweet to taste.

Herpolirion novae-zelandieae Sky Lilies
A tiny plant of alpine or sub-alpine bogs. Tufts of curved blue-green grassy leaves, usually under 5cm, surround a sky-blue flower, white throated, and so short-stalked that it seems to be an inset in the turf. Summer.

Drymophila cyanocarpa Turquoise Berry
Slender arched stems about 30cm high rise singly from the rootstock. The thin lanceoloate leaves, up to 7.5cm long, are in two rows, with small white starry flowers on long stalks in the axis. Globular blue berries like little beads.

Jean Galbraith also included the Xanthorrhoea in lilies, but they are now treated as a separate genus.

Schelhammera undulata Lilac lily
A soft and slender plant with broad wavy-edged leaves 2.5 - 5cm, and terminal lilac flowers up to 2.5cm in diameter. Foliage resembles the introduced Wandering Jew.

Smilax australis Austral Sarsparilla
A climbing plant with alternate rough, rather hard oval leaves about 7.5cm long, with conspicuous cross veins joining the main parallel veins, making a netted pattern. Stems prickly, flowers minute, fruits a small black berry.

Geitonoplesium cymosum Scrambling Lily
Nearly related to Smilax. A twining plant with alternate short-stalked light-green leaves, thin and shaped like little swords. 7.5cm by under 1cm wide. Small, whitish, green or purplish flowers.

Eustrephus latifolius Wombat Berry
Climbing plant, rather dense, not tall, stalkless ovate leaves, small starry flowers followed by orange berries like small marbles.

Other species closely related belong to the Amaryllis (Crinum (which are treated as lilies in Flora of Victoria), Orthrosanthus and Calostemma), the Hypoxis family and the Iris family - Diplarrena, Patersonias and Libertias.