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Pontederia hastata; photograph Bruno viardot, CC BY-SA, via GBIF CC BY-SABruno viardot, CC BY-SA, via GBIF

Pontederia hastata L.

Asian Water Hyacinth; Arrowleaf monochoria; Hastate-leaf-pondweed; Monochoria

Pontederiaceae · China South-Central, Hainan +20

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Pontederia hastata, photograph Bruno viardot, CC BY-SA, via GBIFPontederia hastata, photograph Sandipan Das, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFPontederia hastata, photograph Sandipan Das, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFPontederia hastata, photograph Ganjar Cahyadi, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFPontederia hastata, photograph Ganjar Cahyadi, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFPontederia hastata, photograph Saoussan Mokraoui, CC BY-SA, via GBIF 13 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
12.2°C
Record low 6.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,868mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–39DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, May to October (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Pontederia hastata is a species of flowering plant in the family Pontederiaceae, native from tropical and subtropical Asia south to the Northern Territory of Australia. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Pontederia hastata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,227 mm of 1,601 mm) falls in May to October. The temperature curve is flat, 2.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,601 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,227 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 237 mm, driest month January at 25 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,196 mm to 2,992 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,868 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,601 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: 29 to 39 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 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 12.2 °C, the absolute minimum 6.7 °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 21.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 11.4 °C to 24.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.9 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.2 °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: 60 to 66% 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 -40 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 Pontederia hastata through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 21.1 °C; 1,601 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 POWER6.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 29–39RH 60–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 101 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 °C28 / 22–3129 / 25–3231 / 27–3432 / 28–3732 / 29–3531 / 28–3331 / 28–3231 / 28–3230 / 28–3230 / 28–3228 / 26–3228 / 24–30
Night °C21 / 11–2522 / 14–2523 / 18–2524 / 20–2625 / 22–2625 / 20–2725 / 20–2625 / 20–2624 / 22–2523 / 21–2522 / 16–2521 / 13–25
Rain mm25 / 6–37230 / 8–33979 / 18–312111 / 43–274183 / 16–305199 / 32–399208 / 27–478236 / 29–387237 / 44–346164 / 75–33297 / 15–32432 / 7–322
DLI32 / 25–3535 / 29–3839 / 33–4138 / 33–4235 / 31–3932 / 27–3531 / 25–3531 / 26–3830 / 26–3930 / 27–3830 / 26–3829 / 25–35
RH %60 / 53–6861 / 51–6760 / 50–6660 / 52–6763 / 52–6865 / 50–6966 / 59–7066 / 60–7066 / 61–6964 / 58–7062 / 55–6961 / 52–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 101 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (120 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 2066:6208 (-13.325, 130.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.2 °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 101 distinct grid cells holding 120 of the 121 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2066:6208 (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 -13.50_130.625, lapse-corrected -40 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 14 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.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New Guinea, Northern Territory · introduced: Fiji · 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 marker13.447, 99.929 · in the densest population, 57 records (27% of those in range)
Kew's description“helophyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 210 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 120 of them in the land cells it reads, of 121 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 129 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 105 km away. 13 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 89 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 4° block of the 210 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Pontederia hastata, photograph 1did not loadPontederia hastata, photograph 2did not loadPontederia hastata, photograph 3did not loadPontederia hastata, photograph 4did not loadPontederia hastata, photograph 5did not loadPontederia hastata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Bruno viardot, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Sandipan Das, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Ganjar Cahyadi, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Saoussan Mokraoui, CC BY-SA, via GBIF.

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

Tarlmounia elliptica Tarlmounia elliptica Curtain Creeper Photo: CC BY, 謝麗霦Saraca indica Saraca indica Asoka-tree Photo: CC BY, Utain PummarinWrightia religiosa Wrightia religiosa Water-jasmine Photo: CC BY, MarkLasia spinosa Lasia spinosa Spiny Lasia Photo: CC BY, Rongrong AngkaewCitrus hystrix Citrus hystrix Kaffir lime Photo: CC BY, rjtizardBarringtonia acutangula Barringtonia acutangula Freshwater mangrove Photo: CC BY, Alan Bell

Other Pontederia 12 in the reference

Pontederia azurea Pontederia azurea Anchored water hyacinth Photo: CC BY, Vincent A. VosPontederia cordata Pontederia cordata Pickerelweed Photo: CC BY, RAPPontederia crassipes Pontederia crassipes Floating water-hyacinth Photo: CC BY, Donald DavesnePontederia cyanea Pontederia cyanea Blue Hyacinth Photo: CC BY, Joachim BlatchlyPontederia diversifolia Pontederia diversifolia Variableleaf Water Hyacinth Photo: CC BY, Guillaume Delaitre Pontederia elata Pontederiaceae Pontederia korsakowii Pontederia korsakowii Pontederiaceae Photo: CC BY, Kim, Hyun-taePontederia paniculata Pontederia paniculata Brazilian water hyacinth Photo: CC0, Taize Santos Pontederia plantaginea Pontederiaceae Pontederia rotundifolia Pontederia rotundifolia Tropical pickerelweed Photo: CC BY, Silvia TenPontederia sagittata Pontederia sagittata Pontederiaceae Photo: CC BY, Douglas Caro LopezPontederia vaginalis Pontederia vaginalis Oval-leaf monochoria Photo: CC BY, chiuluan

Names & registers

Also known as Calcarunia hastata; Carigola hastata; Monochoria chinensis; Monochoria dilatata; Monochoria hastata and 5 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Pontederia sagittata Roxb. is an older name of this species, not Pontederia sagittata, a species of the reference; Pontederia vaginalis Blanco is an older name of this species, not Pontederia vaginalis, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Pontederiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +19
Wild records
210 in range · 129 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; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 1 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 -13.50_130.625, lapse-corrected -40 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
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 38 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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