Hydrolea spinosaL.

spiny false fiddleleaf

WFO wfo-0000726687 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Hydrolea spinosa, photographed by Robert Webster
fig. a Robert Webster, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-04-16 / obs. 121941614
Hydrolea spinosa, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. b Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 103622484
Hydrolea spinosa, photographed by Tsssss
fig. c Tsssss, CC0 1.0 / obs. 100541956
Hydrolea spinosa, photographed by Tsssss
fig. d Tsssss, CC0 1.0 / obs. 95879172
Hydrolea spinosa, photographed by Luis F. Ramírez
fig. e Luis F. Ramírez, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 83011755
Hydrolea spinosa, photographed by Fernando Sessegolo
fig. f Fernando Sessegolo, CC0 1.0 / obs. 61580543
Hydrolea spinosa, photographed by Fernando Sessegolo
fig. g Fernando Sessegolo, CC0 1.0 / obs. 61127982
Hydrolea spinosa, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. h Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 58949305

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 35 botanical countries

Regions where Hydrolea spinosa is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Texas, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, Windward Is. Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestTexasArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruSurinameTrinidad-TobagoUruguayVenezuela Windward Is.
Native distribution of Hydrolea spinosa, 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
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Uruguay URU
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Texas TEX

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 81 in flower of 83 examined

Peak flowering in Jan. Each bar is the share of Hydrolea spinosa 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. 81 of 83 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 4 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 47 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.

  • Ascleia mexicana Raf.
  • Campanula americana var. hirsuta Houst. ex Sw.
  • Ernstamra herbacea (Choisy) Kuntze
  • Hydrolea azurea Linden
  • Hydrolea capsularis (L.) Druce
  • Hydrolea cervantesii Brand
  • Hydrolea cervantesii var. cervantesii
  • Hydrolea cervantesii var. maior Brand
  • Hydrolea cryptantha Brand
  • Hydrolea elegans A.W.Benn.
  • Hydrolea extra-axillaris C.Morren
  • Hydrolea extraaxillaris C.Morren
  • Hydrolea glabra Choisy
  • Hydrolea latifolia Raf.
  • Hydrolea megapotamica Spreng.
  • Hydrolea megapotamica var. paraguayensis J.F.Macbr.
  • Hydrolea mollis Chodat
  • Hydrolea paludosa A.W.Benn.
  • Hydrolea paraguayensis Chodat
  • Hydrolea paraguayensis f. grandifolia Chodat & Hassl.
  • Hydrolea paraguayensis var. inermis Chodat & Hassl.
  • Hydrolea spinosa f. glabra Brand
  • Hydrolea spinosa f. glabrispina Brand
  • Hydrolea spinosa f. latifolia Brand

and 23 more.

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.