Family, Lily. Flowers crowded or bunched at the end of a tall, unbranched, leafy stem. They form a large panicle of which the lower flowers are staminate, the upper pistillate. The 6 divisions of the perianth are raised on claws, at the summit of which is a large double gland. After blossoming the flowers become brownish. Leaves, narrow and grass-like, the lower ones clasping the stem, often a foot long, growing small toward the top. June to August.

Wet meadows and woods, beside banks of streams, from New England to Florida and Texas.