[2] This has long been a group of two species in the Mediterranean Europe and South Africa, but in 2016 was revised to include an Australasian relative, Lepilaena.

The filiform styles gradually pass into the carpels and the stigmas are large and oblique.

[5] Lepilaena was a genus of aquatic and marine flowering plant comprising 6 or more species endemic[8][9] to coastal and brackish or alkaline inland waters of temperate Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand.

[7] Two species are noted for their occurrence in marine environs, L. cylindrocarpa and L. marina, in estuaries and tidal flats.

[6] Other species may be found in habitats of fresh to brackish, still or slowly moving, coastal or inland waters.