Aldrovanda vesiculosaL.

Common AldrovandaWaterwheelwaterwheel plant

WFO wfo-0000940527 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Aldrovanda vesiculosa, photographed by National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project
fig. a National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-16 / obs. 166647567
Aldrovanda vesiculosa, photographed by National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project
fig. b National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163488069
Aldrovanda vesiculosa, photographed by National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project
fig. c National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163486852
Aldrovanda vesiculosa, photographed by Robert Taylor
fig. d Robert Taylor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 101471998
Aldrovanda vesiculosa, photographed by Robert Taylor
fig. e Robert Taylor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 57863962
Aldrovanda vesiculosa, photographed by Wilderness Safaris Botswana - Conservation Team
fig. f Wilderness Safaris Botswana - Conservation Team, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 47214418
Aldrovanda vesiculosa, photographed by Wilderness Safaris Botswana - Conservation Team
fig. g Wilderness Safaris Botswana - Conservation Team, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 48259770
Aldrovanda vesiculosa, photographed by Robert Taylor
fig. h Robert Taylor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 32857076

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
3837682
Filed as
Aldrovanda vesiculosa L.
Det. by
not recorded on this sheet
Collected
G. A. W. Arnott 1875
Origin
not recorded
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 41 botanical countries

Regions where Aldrovanda vesiculosa is native: Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, Amur, Inner Mongolia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Manchuria, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Primorye, Transcaucasus, Assam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Lesser Sunda Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, Belarus, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, France, Germany, Hungary, Northwest European Russia, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Ukraine BotswanaBurundiCameroonChadGhanaMadagascarRwandaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaZambiaAmurInner MongoliaJapanKazakhstanKhabarovskManchuriaMongoliaNorth CaucasusPrimoryeTranscaucasusAssamBangladeshCambodiaIndiaLesser Sunda Is.New South WalesNorthern TerritoryQueenslandWestern AustraliaBelarusCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaFranceGermanyHungaryNorthwest European RussiaNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaUkraine
Native distribution of Aldrovanda vesiculosa, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Belarus BLR EUROPE
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
France FRA
Germany GER
Hungary HUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Ukraine UKR
Botswana BOT AFRICA
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Chad CHA
Ghana GHA
Madagascar MDG
Rwanda RWA
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Zambia ZAM
Amur AMU ASIA-TEMPERATE
Inner Mongolia CHI
Japan JAP
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Primorye PRM
Transcaucasus TCS
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Cambodia CBD
India IND
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
New South Wales NSW AUSTRALASIA
Northern Territory NTA
Queensland QLD
Western Australia WAU

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 104 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -24.6 °C -5.1 °C 10.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.8 °C 24.9 °C 34.3 °C
Annual rainfall 471 mm 609 mm 1,413 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 2 mm 97 mm 299 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 104 research-grade observations of Aldrovanda vesiculosa that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 7 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Aldrovanda generalis E.H.L.Krause
  • Aldrovanda verticillata Roxb.
  • Aldrovanda vesiculosa var. australis Darwin
  • Aldrovanda vesiculosa var. duriaei Casp.
  • Aldrovanda vesiculosa var. rubescens A.T.Cross & Adamec
  • Aldrovanda vesiculosa var. verticillata (Roxb.) Darwin
  • Drosera aldrovanda F.Muell.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.