Hygrophila ringens(L.) R.Br. ex Spreng.

WFO wfo-0001041390 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 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 ringens, photographed by S.MORE
fig. a S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / 2020-12-26 / obs. 108487677
Hygrophila ringens, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. b Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 130438562
Hygrophila ringens, photographed by S.MORE
fig. c S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 78278983
Hygrophila ringens, photographed by S.MORE
fig. d S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 108300318
Hygrophila ringens, photographed by Peter de Lange
fig. e Peter de Lange, CC0 1.0 / obs. 7864871
Hygrophila ringens, photographed by S.MORE
fig. f S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 108300306
Hygrophila ringens, photographed by Peter de Lange
fig. g Peter de Lange, CC0 1.0 / obs. 7864872
Hygrophila ringens, photographed by Peter de Lange
fig. h Peter de Lange, CC0 1.0 / obs. 7864870

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 25 botanical countries

Regions where Hygrophila ringens is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Laos, Malaya, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya China South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanJapanTaiwanAssamBangladeshBorneoCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaLaosMalayaMyanmarNepalPakistanPhilippinesSri LankaThailandVietnamWest Himalaya KoreaNansei-shotoAndaman Is.Maldives
Native distribution of Hygrophila ringens, 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
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Assam ASS
Bangladesh BAN
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Laos LAO
Malaya MLY
Maldives MDV
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Pakistan PAK
Philippines PHI
Sri Lanka SRL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Japan JAP
Korea KOR
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI

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 30 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 7.4 °C 14.6 °C 22.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.8 °C 30.1 °C 33.0 °C
Annual rainfall 1,223 mm 2,426 mm 3,170 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 2 mm 93 mm 355 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 30 research-grade observations of Hygrophila ringens 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 37 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.

  • Dipteracanthus ringens (L.) Abeyw.
  • Hygrophila angustifolia var. assurgens (Nees) Benoist
  • Hygrophila angustifolia var. quadrivalvis (Buch.-Ham.) F.N.Williams
  • Hygrophila assurgens Nees
  • Hygrophila dimidiata Nees
  • Hygrophila lancea Miq.
  • Hygrophila malabarica Raf.
  • Hygrophila megalantha Merr.
  • Hygrophila obovata Wight
  • Hygrophila obovata (Roxb. ex Hornem.) Nees
  • Hygrophila quadrivalvis (Buch.-Ham.) Nees
  • Hygrophila radicans Nees
  • Hygrophila ringens var. assurgens (Nees) Karthik. & Moorthy
  • Hygrophila ringens var. cochinensis (Remadevi & Binojk.) Karthik. & Moorthy
  • Hygrophila salicifolia (Vahl) Nees
  • Hygrophila salicifolia var. cochinensis Remadevi & Binojk.
  • Hygrophila salicifolia var. latifolia Kuntze
  • Hygrophila salicifolia var. longihirsuta H.S.Lo & D.Fang
  • Hygrophila salicifolia var. megalantha (Merr.) H.S.Lo & L.D.Chou
  • Hygrophila salicifolia var. quadrivalvis (Buch.-Ham.) J.B.Imlay
  • Hygrophila stricta Hassk.
  • Hygrophila undulata Blume
  • Hygrophila undulata var. normalis Kuntze
  • Hygrophila undulata var. obovatifolia Kuntze

and 13 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. 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.