A small group of Australian genera closely approach the order Juncaceae in having small crowded flowers with a scarious or membranous perianth; they include Xanthorrhoea (grass-tree or blackboy) and Kingia, arborescent plants with an erect woody stem crowned with a tuft of long stiff narrow leaves, from the centre of which rises a tall dense flower spike or a number of stalked flower-heads; this group has been included in Juncaceae, from which it is doubtfully distinguished only by the absence of the long twisted stigmas which characterize the true rushes.
Some Commelinaceae and Marantaceae approach grasses in foliage; the leaves of Allium, &c., possess a ligule; the habit of some palms reminds one of the bamboos; and Juncaceae and a few Liliaceae possess an inconspicuous scarious perianth.