In this work, we present evidence for the formation of transient stalks in aligned multilamellar stacks of lipid membranes. Just above the phase transition from the fluid ( $$L_\alpha$$ L α ) lamellar phase to the rhombohedral phase (R), where lipid stalks crystallize on a super-lattice within the lipid bilayer stack, we observe a characteristic scattering pattern, which can be attributed to a correlated fluid of transient sta...