Heteranthera rotundifolia(Kunth) Griseb.

roundleaf mudplantain

WFO wfo-0000441657 Accepted WFO 2026-06 4 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–d · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, 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.

Heteranthera rotundifolia, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. a Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / 2012-09-05 / obs. 627349
Heteranthera rotundifolia, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. b Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 627350
Heteranthera rotundifolia, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. c Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 627351
Heteranthera rotundifolia, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. d Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 627352

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 27 botanical countries

Regions where Heteranthera rotundifolia is native: Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Bolivia, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela ArizonaCaliforniaColoradoIllinoisKansasKentuckyMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestMissouriNebraskaNew MexicoOklahomaSouth DakotaTexasBoliviaBrazil NortheastBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaEcuadorParaguayPeruVenezuela
Native distribution of Heteranthera rotundifolia, 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
Arizona ARI NORTHERN AMERICA
California CAL
Colorado COL
Illinois ILL
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Missouri MSO
Nebraska NEB
New Mexico NWM
Oklahoma OKL
South Dakota SDA
Texas TEX
Bolivia BOL SOUTHERN AMERICA
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Ecuador ECU
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Venezuela VEN

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.

Flowering 51 in flower of 58 examined

Peak flowering in Aug. Each bar is the share of Heteranthera rotundifolia observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 51 of 58 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 7 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 2 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.

  • Heteranthera limosa subsp. rotundifolia (Kunth) A.Galán
  • Heteranthera limosa var. rotundifolia Kunth

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.