The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Monochoria vaginalis
Also called Heartshape false pickerelweed, Pickerel Weed, Oval Leaf Monochoria, Oval Leaf Pondweed
Monochoria vaginalis is an aquatic herb in the Pontederiaceae family, native to much of Asia and the Pacific Islands, and often a weed in rice paddies. It grows rooted in shallow water or mud, and it is not a typical garden or houseplant.
Monochoria vaginalis is a species of flowering plant in the water hyacinth family known by several common names, including heartshape false pickerelweed and oval-leafed pondweed.
It is native to much of Asia and across many of the Pacific Islands, and it is known in other areas as an introduced species. It is often an invasive noxious weed, and is listed on the United States Federal Noxious Weed List. An aquatic plant, it is invasive in rice paddies and other water bodies. This is an annual or perennial herb growing in water from a small rhizome. It is quite variable in morphology. The shiny green leaves are up to about 12 centimeters long and 10 wide and are borne on rigid, hollow petioles. The inflorescence bears 3 to 25 flowers which open underwater and all around the same time. Each has six purple-blue tepals just over a centimeter long.
In northern Luzon in the Philippines, where it is called hahalung, hakhaklung (Ilocano), or saksaklung (Kalinga), the whole young plant is eaten as a vegetable, except for the roots.
Pontederia azurea · Water hyacinths · Monochoria korsakowii · Pickerelweed · Floating Water Hyacinth · Pontederia sagittata · Pickerelweed
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pontederia vaginalis 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.
