About Philydrum lanuginosum Banks & Sol. ex Gaertn.
Philydrum is a genus of tufted, herbaceous, aquatic macrophyte plants, and it is one of the three genera that make up the plant family Philydraceae. Philydrum lanuginosum is the only known species in this genus. This species is commonly known as frogsmouth and woolly waterlily. Woolly waterlilies grow naturally across south and east Asia, which includes India, southern China, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam; across Malesia including New Guinea; across northern and eastern Australia; and across the Pacific Islands. In Australia, they grow naturally in wetlands in northern Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. They have spongy, soft, hairy, herbaceous foliage. The foliage grows upright in tufts that reach up to 80 cm (2.6 ft) high, growing from short-creeping, branching stems that are rooted in mud. The stems grow taller than the leaves, developing into green, woolly spikes that reach up to 2 m (6.6 ft) high. Many attractive, fine yellow flowers open sequentially along these spikes. Each bud is enclosed by a long, pointed, green and woolly bract up to 7 cm (2.8 in) long. As the spike grows, the bract of each sequentially maturing bud bends back, opening the flower inside it and holding the flower's delicate yellow 'petals' on display below the bract. Each flower has two outer, showy yellow 'petals' which are actually perianth segments; these segments are hairy on the outside and measure up to 15 mm × 10 mm (0.6 in × 0.4 in). Their appearance resembles open yellow mouths, which gives the species its common name frogsmouth. Inside the flower, two smaller inner yellow 'petals' stand around the reproductive structures: a single stamen and a style. Woolly waterlilies have some popularity in Australian wetland landscaping and gardening, but they have not yet become very well known. Species formerly included in the genus Philydrum have been moved to the genus Helmholtzia: P. glaberrimum is now Helmholtzia glaberrima, and P. helmholtzii is now Helmholtzia acorifolia.
