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Limnophila aromatica; photograph (c) 賴碧珠, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) 賴碧珠, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-01-23

Limnophila aromatica (Lam.) Merr.

Rice Paddy Herb; Finger Grass; Rice paddy marshweed; Limnophila

Plantaginaceae · Hainan, China Southeast +22

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Limnophila aromatica, photograph (c) 賴碧珠, some rights reserved (CC BY)Limnophila aromatica, photograph (c) 賴碧珠, some rights reserved (CC BY)Limnophila aromatica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedLimnophila aromatica, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Limnophila aromatica, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Limnophila aromatica, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 42 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
9.3°C
Record low 4.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Jan and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,499mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–42DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes November to March, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Limnophila aromatica, the rice paddy herb, is a tropical flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae. It is native to Southeast Asia, where it flourishes in hot temperatures and grows most often in watery environments, particularly in flooded rice fields. It is called ngò ôm, ngò om, or ngổ in Vietnam and used as an herb and also cultivated for use as an aquarium plant. The plant was introduced to North America in the 1970s due to Vietnamese immigration following the Vietnam War. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Limnophila aromatica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,144 mm of 1,524 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.1 °C against a yearly mean of 23.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

1,524 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,144 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 317 mm, driest month September at 28 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,053 mm to 2,488 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,499 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,524 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 9.3 °C, the absolute minimum 4.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 14.8 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 10.7 °C to 20.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.9 °C in January and December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +79 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Limnophila aromatica through the yearWarmest months January and December, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 14.8 °C; 1,524 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°41.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER4.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 27–42RH 55–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 134 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C30 / 27–3229 / 26–3228 / 25–3227 / 23–3325 / 22–3223 / 19–3022 / 19–3023 / 20–3226 / 23–3528 / 25–3629 / 26–3530 / 27–34
Night °C23 / 20–2523 / 20–2522 / 19–2521 / 17–2418 / 15–2316 / 12–2115 / 11–2016 / 11–2118 / 13–2320 / 16–2422 / 18–2523 / 19–25
Rain mm317 / 130–434294 / 175–447211 / 117–381102 / 45–27171 / 9–19248 / 1–13534 / 2–12433 / 1–10828 / 5–10064 / 25–138125 / 78–192197 / 140–315
DLI37 / 33–4035 / 32–3635 / 32–3731 / 27–3728 / 22–3527 / 20–3427 / 22–3531 / 27–3939 / 34–4342 / 37–4542 / 37–4440 / 35–42
RH %64 / 60–6865 / 61–7062 / 59–6960 / 53–6959 / 49–6957 / 47–6756 / 46–6655 / 46–6556 / 47–6458 / 48–6560 / 54–6662 / 59–67

Records on both sides of the equator: the 34 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 134 cells that remain: the 120 at least 10° south and the 14 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 134 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (191 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2087:6252 (-14.375, 132.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 134 distinct grid cells holding 191 of the 231 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the southern side of the equator (34 cells poleward of 10° north, 120 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2087:6252 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -14.50_132.500, lapse-corrected +79 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 278 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeHainan, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, Caroline Is. · introduced: New Caledonia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker25.085, 121.467 · in the densest population, 143 records (27% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or subshrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 538 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 191 of them in the land cells it reads, of 231 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 355 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4409 km away. 13 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 307 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 538 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Limnophila aromatica, photograph 1did not loadLimnophila aromatica, photograph 2did not loadLimnophila aromatica, photograph 3did not loadLimnophila aromatica, photograph 4did not loadLimnophila aromatica, photograph 5did not loadLimnophila aromatica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) 賴碧珠, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Sacciolepis indica Sacciolepis indica Glenwoodgrass Photo: CC0, author not stated Abelmoschus rhodopetalus Malvaceae Diplatia furcata Diplatia furcata Bottlebrush Mistletoe Photo: CC BY, Tony van KampenCissus repens Cissus repens Cissus Photo: CC0, author not statedCycas media Cycas media Queensland cycas Photo: CC BY, Richard LittauerBursaria tenuifolia Bursaria tenuifolia Sweet Bursaria Photo: CC BY, Matt B

Other Limnophila 7 in the reference

Limnophila aquatica Limnophila aquatica Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, AravinthLimnophila chinensis Limnophila chinensis Finger Grass Photo: CC BY, Thomas MesaglioLimnophila fragrans Limnophila fragrans Limnophila Photo: CC BY, Thomas MesaglioLimnophila heterophylla Limnophila heterophylla Diverse-leaved Marshweed Photo: CC BY-SA, Ruppia2000Limnophila indica Limnophila indica Indian marshweed Photo: CC BY, Siddarth MachadoLimnophila rugosa Limnophila rugosa Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Te HsuLimnophila sessiliflora Limnophila sessiliflora Asian marshweed Photo: CC BY, James Hardee

Names & registers

Also known as Ambuli gratissima; Ambulia aromatica; Ambulia gratissima; Antirrhinum aquaticum; Gratiola aromatica and 10 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Plantaginaceae
Described by
(Lam.) Merr.
Native to
Hainan, China Southeast, Japan +21
Wild records
538 in range · 355 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 11 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -14.50_132.500, lapse-corrected +79 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 63 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…