Rotula aquaticaLour.

WFO wfo-0000402739 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 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.

Rotula aquatica, photographed by S.MORE
fig. a S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / 2014-11-09 / obs. 108418500
Rotula aquatica, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. b Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 127984365
Rotula aquatica, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. c Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 122689388
Rotula aquatica, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. d Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 127145274
Rotula aquatica, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. e Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 126374616
Rotula aquatica, photographed by S.MORE
fig. f S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 108418524
Rotula aquatica, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. g Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 127984361
Rotula aquatica, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. h Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 126374627

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 31 botanical countries

Regions where Rotula aquatica is native: Benin, Burkina, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, China South-Central, China Southeast, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, India, Laos, Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast BeninBurkinaGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauIvory CoastLiberiaMaliNigeriaSenegalSierra LeoneChina South-CentralChina SoutheastAssamBangladeshBorneoCambodiaIndiaLaosMalayaMalukuMyanmarNew GuineaPhilippinesSri LankaSulawesiThailandVietnamBrazil NortheastBrazil Southeast Andaman Is.
Native distribution of Rotula aquatica, 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
India IND
Laos LAO
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Benin BEN AFRICA
Burkina BKN
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Ivory Coast IVO
Liberia LBR
Mali MLI
Nigeria NGA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Brazil Northeast BZE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Brazil Southeast BZL

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 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.

  • Bourreria uniflora G.Don
  • Carmona lycioides G.Don
  • Carmona viminea G.Don
  • Ehretia aquatica (Lour.) Gottschling & Hilger
  • Ehretia cuneata Wight
  • Ehretia lycioides Wall. ex G.Don
  • Ehretia uniflora Roxb.
  • Ehretia viminea (G.Don) Wall. ex A.DC.
  • Ehretia viminea Wall.
  • Rhabdia aquatica (Lour.) Kuntze
  • Rhabdia fluvialis Edgew.
  • Rhabdia lycioides Mart.
  • Rhabdia sericea Edgew.
  • Rhabdia viminea (G.Don) Dalzell ex Hook.
  • Rotula lycioides (Mart.) I.M.Johnst.
  • Zombiana africana Baill.

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.