Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Nymphoides hydrophyllum; photograph self-made, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAself-made, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Nymphoides hydrophyllum (Lour.) Kuntze

Menyanthaceae · Iran, China South-Central +16

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

No habitat climate
Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Nymphoides hydrophyllum, photograph Ito Y, Barfod A, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsNymphoides hydrophyllum, photograph Ruppia2000, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsNymphoides hydrophyllum, photograph Dinesh Valke from Thane, India, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsNymphoides hydrophyllum, photograph Dinesh Valke from Thane, India, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsNymphoides hydrophyllum, photograph Vengolis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsNymphoides hydrophyllum, photograph Vengolis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›

Summary

Nymphoides hydrophylla, commonly known as crested floating-heart, is an aquatic plant of the family Menyanthaceae native to Taiwan. It has cordate floating leaves that support a lax inflorescence of dainty white flowers with fringed petal margins. Its slim stem (spear) is edible, and is used as vegetable in Taiwan, mostly produced at Meinong District, Kaohsiung.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Nymphoides hydrophylla", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Nymphoides

Nymphoides, or floatingheart, is a genus of aquatic flowering plants in the family Menyanthaceae. The genus name refers to their resemblance to the water lily Nymphaea. Nymphoides are aquatic plants with submerged roots and floating leaves that hold the small flowers above the water surface. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Nymphoides", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Nothing derived: no habitat climate for this species.

Climate across the habitat

No habitat climate can be derived: No georeferenced record inside the range.

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP.
No openly licensed record to show inside the range.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the keys of the names Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 3825715 (Limnanthemum hydrophyllum (Lour.) Griseb., 0 records), 5592235 (Villarsia hydrophyllum (Lour.) Roem. & Schult., 0 records), 5592353 (Menyanthes hydrophyllum Lour., 0 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeIran, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Korea, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam · introduced: Florida · 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).
Kew's description“hydroperennial” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedNo georeferenced records inside the stated native range.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 3825715 (Limnanthemum hydrophyllum (Lour.) Griseb.): Kew's file holds it as Limnanthemum hydrophyllum (Lour.) Griseb. (synonym under Nymphoides hydrophyllum (Lour.) Kuntze); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.Records also from GBIF's key 5592235 (Villarsia hydrophyllum (Lour.) Roem. & Schult.): Kew's file holds it as Villarsia hydrophyllum (Lour.) Roem. & Schult. (synonym under Nymphoides hydrophyllum (Lour.) Kuntze); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.Records also from GBIF's key 5592353 (Menyanthes hydrophyllum Lour.): Kew's file holds it as Menyanthes hydrophyllum Lour. (synonym under Nymphoides hydrophyllum (Lour.) Kuntze); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.

Photographs

Nymphoides hydrophyllum, photograph 1did not loadNymphoides hydrophyllum, photograph 2did not loadNymphoides hydrophyllum, photograph 3did not loadNymphoides hydrophyllum, photograph 4did not loadNymphoides hydrophyllum, photograph 5did not loadNymphoides hydrophyllum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Ito Y, Barfod A, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Ruppia2000, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Dinesh Valke from Thane, India, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); Vengolis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2).

Other Nymphoides 13 in the reference

Nymphoides aquatica Nymphoides aquatica Banana Plant Photo: CC BY, Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）Nymphoides aurantiaca Nymphoides aurantiaca Menyanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Alan BellNymphoides cordata Nymphoides cordata Little floatingheart Photo: CC BY, Sam TurnerNymphoides coreana Nymphoides coreana East Asian floatingheart Photo: CC BY, chiuluanNymphoides crenata Nymphoides crenata Wavy marshwort Photo: CC BY-SA, Ruth PalssonNymphoides ezannoi Nymphoides ezannoi Menyanthaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt StüberNymphoides fallax Nymphoides fallax Menyanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Rodolfo Maximiliano Gutiérrez-SánchezNymphoides geminata Nymphoides geminata Entire marshwort Photo: CC BY, Andrew ThornhillNymphoides humboldtiana Nymphoides humboldtiana Menyanthaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedNymphoides indica Nymphoides indica Water snowflake Photo: CC BY, Scott W. Gavins Nymphoides lungtanensis Menyanthaceae Nymphoides peltata Nymphoides peltata Fringed water-lily Photo: CC BY, Dmitry Babin all 14 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Villarsia hydrophyllum; Menyanthes sinarica; Villarsia cristata; Limnanthemum cristatum; Menyanthes hydrophyllum and 4 more. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Menyanthaceae
Described by
(Lour.) Kuntze
Native to
Iran, China South-Central, Hainan +15
Wild records
none in range

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
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Nymphoides hydrophyllum (Lour.) Kuntze (plant_name_id 2385075), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; 0 records of GBIF's key 3825715, Limnanthemum hydrophyllum (Lour.) Griseb. (Kew's file holds it as Limnanthemum hydrophyllum (Lour.) Griseb. (synonym under Nymphoides hydrophyllum (Lour.) Kuntze)): GBIF occurrence search API; 0 records of GBIF's key 5592235, Villarsia hydrophyllum (Lour.) Roem. & Schult. (Kew's file holds it as Villarsia hydrophyllum (Lour.) Roem. & Schult. (synonym under Nymphoides hydrophyllum (Lour.) Kuntze)): GBIF occurrence search API; 0 records of GBIF's key 5592353, Menyanthes hydrophyllum Lour. (Kew's file holds it as Menyanthes hydrophyllum Lour. (synonym under Nymphoides hydrophyllum (Lour.) Kuntze)): GBIF occurrence search API
Habitat climate climate nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22no georeferenced record inside the range
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 370200-1, POWO 370200-1
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons 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.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…