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West Indian Spongeplant

Hydrocharis laevigata

West Indian Spongeplant
Photo: Cardex, Public domain

A free-floating aquatic plant in the frogbit family, often sold for ponds and aquariums. The key to growing it is keeping it in still or slow water with plenty of light, and removing it from natural waterways where it can spread.

Family
Hydrocharitaceae (Hydrocharit family)
Grows as
Aquatic
Light
Full sun, Bright indirect
Water
Grows floating on the water surface; no soil watering needed.
Temperature
18–30 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Easy
Native range
Mexico to Trop. America
Climate
wet tropical

About

Hydrocharis laevigata is a floating aquatic plant, and is a member of the family Hydrocharitaceae. Common names include West Indian spongeplant, South American spongeplant and Amazon or smooth frogbit. This plant was introduced to North American waterways through use in aquariums and aquascapes.

Other Hydrocharis plants

Common frogbit · American Spongeplant · Frog Bit

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hydrocharis laevigata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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