Eriocaulon setaceumL.

setaceous-leaf pipewort

WFO wfo-0000413799 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Eriocaulon setaceum, photographed by Hugo Innes
fig. a Hugo Innes, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-02-17 / obs. 179724538
Eriocaulon setaceum, photographed by S.MORE
fig. b S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 153055761
Eriocaulon setaceum, photographed by Hugo Innes
fig. c Hugo Innes, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 179724535
Eriocaulon setaceum, photographed by S.MORE
fig. d S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 153055663
Eriocaulon setaceum, photographed by coenobita
fig. e coenobita, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 16095542
Eriocaulon setaceum, photographed by Hugo Innes
fig. f Hugo Innes, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 179724550
Eriocaulon setaceum, photographed by coenobita
fig. g coenobita, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 16095567
Eriocaulon setaceum, photographed by coenobita
fig. h coenobita, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 16095507

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.

Native range 44 botanical countries

Regions where Eriocaulon setaceum is native: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Korea, Andaman Is., Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Jawa, Laos, Myanmar, New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia AngolaBotswanaBurundiCameroonCentral African RepublicChadCongoDR CongoGabonGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauIvory CoastLiberiaMadagascarMaliNigeriaSenegalSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabweChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanBangladeshCambodiaIndiaJawaLaosMyanmarNew GuineaSri LankaSumateraThailandVietnamNorthern TerritoryQueenslandWestern Australia KoreaAndaman Is.
Native distribution of Eriocaulon setaceum, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Gabon GAB
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Ivory Coast IVO
Liberia LBR
Madagascar MDG
Mali MLI
Nigeria NGA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Cambodia CBD
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Myanmar MYA
New Guinea NWG
Sri Lanka SRL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Korea KOR
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA
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 122 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 14.1 °C 18.1 °C 24.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 29.2 °C 35.5 °C 37.7 °C
Annual rainfall 866 mm 1,721 mm 3,207 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 4 mm 6 mm 225 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 122 research-grade observations of Eriocaulon setaceum 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 16 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.

  • Eriocaulon aquaticum Sagot ex Körn.
  • Eriocaulon bifistulosum Van Heurck & Müll.Arg.
  • Eriocaulon capillus-naiadis Hook.f.
  • Eriocaulon cauliferum Makino
  • Eriocaulon equisetoides P.Royen
  • Eriocaulon fluitans Griff. ex Moldenke
  • Eriocaulon fluitans Baker
  • Eriocaulon intermedium Körn.
  • Eriocaulon intermedium var. brevicaule Satake
  • Eriocaulon intermedium var. glabrum Satake
  • Eriocaulon limosum Engl. & Ruhland
  • Eriocaulon melanocephalum subsp. usterianum (Beauverd) Beauverd ex Moldenke
  • Eriocaulon schweinfurthii Engl. & Ruhland
  • Eriocaulon setaceum var. capillus-naiadis (Hook.f.) Moldenke
  • Eriocaulon usterianum Beauverd
  • Lasiolepis aquatica (Sagot ex Körn.) Boeckeler

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.