Spiloxene aquaticus

Native to South Africa, where it grows in seasonal pools, ditches and marshy areas of Namaqualand and the Cape, Spiloxene aquatica (now reclassified as Pauridia aquatica) is a small perennial aquatic plant arising from a corm renewed annually. Its thin, hollow leaves, filled with a spongy pith that allows them to float, rise above the flowers. These are white and star-shaped, striped with green on the reverse of the outer petals, and open from May to November, during the Cape's wet winter season. It requires a sunny position, waterlogged soil in winter and dry soil in summer.