Species
+

Pontederia crassipes Mart.

Water-hyacinth, floating water-hyacinth, water hyacinth

Climate known 43 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Pontederia crassipes, commonly known as common water hyacinth, is an aquatic plant native to South America, naturalized throughout the world, and often invasive outside its native range. It is the sole species of the subgenus Oshunae within the genus Pontederia. Anecdotally, it is known as the "terror of Bengal" due to its invasive growth tendencies.

Text from Wikipedia, “Pontederia crassipes”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Pontederia

Pontederia is a genus of tristylous aquatic plants, members of which are commonly known as pickerel weeds. Pontederia is endemic to the Americas, distributed from Canada to Argentina, where it is found in shallow water or on mud. The genus was named by Linnaeus in honour of the Italian botanist Giulio Pontedera.

Text from Wikipedia, “Pontederia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Pontederiaceae
Described by
Mart.
Native to
French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam +14
Wild records
163 in range· 59 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jan, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1374mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Mar 166 mm (CHELSA)
Light
24–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1374 mm a year, wettest March at 166 mm, driest August at 56 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 9.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Eichhornia cordifolia Gand.; Eichhornia crassicaulis Schltdl.; Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms; Eichhornia speciosa Kunth; Heteranthera formosa Miq. and 6 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1013 mm of 1374 mm) falls in October to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.0 °C against a yearly mean of 23.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to October.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1374 mm a year, wettest March at 166 mm, driest August at 56 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1374 mm a year at the habitat, 1013 mm of it October to April. Wettest month March at 166 mm, driest August at 56 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 928 mm to 3001 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 9.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 9.6 °C, the absolute minimum 3.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 17.3 °C in July (across the envelope cells 7.9 °C to 23.6 °C), warmest day 28.9 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 25 °C in Jul to 29 °C in Jan; mean night from 17 °C in Jul to 22 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1374 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 140 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 3.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 42.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°50°42.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)3.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 24–36RH 61–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 140 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 22–3129 / 22–3129 / 22–3128 / 21–3026 / 18–2926 / 16–2925 / 15–2926 / 17–3027 / 19–3128 / 20–3228 / 21–3129 / 21–31
Night °C22 / 16–2422 / 16–2422 / 15–2421 / 13–2419 / 11–2418 / 9–2417 / 8–2418 / 9–2419 / 10–2421 / 12–2421 / 14–2422 / 15–24
Rain mm165 / 51–324152 / 72–348166 / 96–334137 / 81–324105 / 53–32067 / 23–26258 / 14–23656 / 9–19575 / 10–203122 / 13–242132 / 28–258139 / 63–291
DLI35 / 27–4635 / 27–4032 / 27–3728 / 23–3425 / 18–3224 / 15–3126 / 16–3330 / 22–3732 / 27–4036 / 29–4136 / 27–4335 / 28–47
RH %64 / 56–7064 / 58–7165 / 60–7065 / 60–7164 / 60–7163 / 59–7263 / 56–7062 / 54–7061 / 54–7062 / 57–7163 / 56–7164 / 56–70

Each figure is the median across the 140 grid cells holding the 156 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2179:2446 (-18.975, -57.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 140 distinct grid cells holding the 156 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2179:2446 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -19.00_-57.500, lapse-corrected -27 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 86 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeFrench Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Paraguay, Uruguay· introduced: Czechoslovakia, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Italy, Sicilia, Ukraine, Egypt, Azores, Canary Is., Benin, Burkina, Gambia, The, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, Zaïre, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Gulf States, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines, Sumatera, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand North, Fiji, Nauru, New Caledonia, Samoa, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Hawaii, Ontario, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Arizona, California, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Ecuador
Kew's description“hydroperennial” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-34.611, -58.358 · in the densest population, 38 records (23% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 163 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 59 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 156 km away. 1463 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 7 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 163 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Pontederia crassipesPontederia crassipesPontederia crassipesPontederia crassipesPontederia crassipesPontederia crassipesPontederia crassipesPontederia crassipes

Photographs: (c) Michael D Fox, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Donald Davesne, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) ritirene, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Pontederia crassipes, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Monitoring the Spread of Water Hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes): Challenges and Future Developments
Aviraj Datta, Savi Maharaj, G. Nagendra Prabhu, Deepayan Bhowmik (2021) · Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Green synthesis of ZnO NPs using Pontederia crassipes leaf extract: characterization, their adsorption behavior and anti-cancer property
Mahmood A. Albo Hay Allah, Hassan Abbas Alshamsi (2022) · Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery
A Remote Sensing Method to Monitor Water, Aquatic Vegetation, and Invasive Water Hyacinth at National Extents
Geethen Singh, Chevonne Reynolds, Marcus J. Byrne, Benjamin Rosman (2020) · Remote Sensing
Facile green synthesis of ZnO/AC nanocomposites using Pontederia crassipes leaf extract and their photocatalytic properties based on visible light activation
Mahmood A. Albo Hay Allah, Hassan Abbas Alshamsi (2023) · Journal of Materials Science Materials in Electronics
Water Quality and Water Hyacinth Monitoring with the Sentinel-2A/B Satellites in Lake Tana (Ethiopia)
Tadesse Mucheye, Sara Haro, Sokratis Papaspyrou, Isabel Caballero (2022) · Remote Sensing
Enhanced adsorption, anticancer and antibacterial potentials of Pontederia crassipes L. extract mediated ecofriendly synthesized ZnO/biochar nanohybrid
Mahmood A. Albo Hay Allah, Hanadi K. Ibrahim, Hassan Abbas Alshamsi (2024) · Inorganic Chemistry Communications
Detecting Water Hyacinth Infestation in Kuttanad, India, Using Dual-Pol Sentinel-1 SAR Imagery
Morgan Simpson, Vahid Akbari, Armando Marino, G. Nagendra Prabhu (2022) · Remote Sensing
A Review of the Biocontrol Programmes Against Aquatic Weeds in South Africa
Julie A. Coetzee, Angela Bownes, G. Martin, Benjamin E. Miller (2021) · African Entomology
Alternative Uses of Water Hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes) from a Sustainable Perspective: A Systematic Literature Review
Celia Gabriela Sierra-Carmona, María Graciela Hernández-Orduña, René Murrieta-Galindo (2022) · Sustainability
Short-term effects of macrophyte removal on emission of CO2 and CH4 in shallow lakes
Sarah F. Harpenslager, Kirstine Thiemer, C. Levertz, Benjamin Misteli (2022) · Aquatic Botany

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Pontederia 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 134 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.