Hygrophila abyssinica(Hochst. ex Nees) T.Anderson

WFO wfo-0000726751 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs 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.

Hygrophila abyssinica, photographed by National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project
fig. a National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-31 / obs. 162393886
Hygrophila abyssinica, photographed by National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project
fig. b National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163486019
Hygrophila abyssinica, photographed by Robert Taylor
fig. c Robert Taylor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 26114728
Hygrophila abyssinica, photographed by National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project
fig. d National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 162393962
Hygrophila abyssinica, photographed by National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project
fig. e National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163486054
Hygrophila abyssinica, photographed by Robert Taylor
fig. f Robert Taylor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 26114712
Hygrophila abyssinica, photographed by National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project
fig. g National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163486038
Hygrophila abyssinica, photographed by National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project
fig. h National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 162393869

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
05043558
Filed as
Hygrophila abyssinica (Hochst. ex Nees) T.Anderson
Det. by
not recorded on this sheet
Collected
B. E. Gates 1973-07-27
Origin
ZM
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 18 botanical countries

Regions where Hygrophila abyssinica is native: Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Caprivi Strip, Central African Republic, Chad, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBotswanaCameroonCaprivi StripCentral African RepublicChadDR CongoEthiopiaGhanaIvory CoastMalawiMozambiqueNamibiaNigeriaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Hygrophila abyssinica, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
Cameroon CMN
Caprivi Strip CPV
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
DR Congo ZAI
Ethiopia ETH
Ghana GHA
Ivory Coast IVO
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Nigeria NGA
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

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.

Also published as 15 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.

  • Cardanthera justicioides S.Moore
  • Dyschoriste tenera Lindau
  • Hemigraphis abyssinica (Hochst. ex Nees) C.B.Clarke
  • Hemigraphis prunelloides S.Moore
  • Hemigraphis tenera (Lindau) C.B.Clarke
  • Hygrophila angolensis (S.Moore) Heine
  • Hygrophila hygrophiloides (Lindau) Heine
  • Hygrophila prunelloides (S.Moore) Heine
  • Hygrophila tenera (Lindau) Heine
  • Polyechma abyssinicum Hochst. ex Nees
  • Synnema abyssinicum (Hochst. ex Nees) Bremek.
  • Synnema angolense S.Moore
  • Synnema hygrophiloides Lindau
  • Synnema prunelloides (S.Moore) Bremek.
  • Synnema tenerum (Lindau) Bremek.

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. 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.