Water hyacinth
Eichhornia crassipes
Kew's current name: Pontederia crassipes Mart.
- light
- Full sun
- water
- Plenty
- tall
- —
- wide
- —
Pontederiaceae
Also called Common water hyacinth, Nile Lily, Water Hyacinth
Formerly Eichhornia crassicaulis, Heteranthera formosa, Oshuna crassipes, Piaropus crassipes, and 2 more
When it flowers
Flowers all year in the tropics.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- HydroperennialKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- Wet tropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- S. Trop. AmericaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Plenty: wet or constantly moistRead from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
- Flowers
- PurpleRead from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: NC State Extension blue, purple; Wikipedia pink, purple
- Hottest it survives
- 34 °CRead from Wikipedia, one source
Not known yet: height, spread, coldest it survives, heat.
In other languages (12)
- German
- Dickstielige Wasserhyazinthe
- root
- Camalotl, bungelralm
- Chinese (China)
- 水葫芦, 凤眼蓝, 凤眼莲
- Finnish
- kellusvesihyasintti
- Indonesian
- Eceng Gondok
- Portuguese
- Jacinto-d'água, Jacinto-de-água, Aguapé
- Chinese
- 布袋蓮, 鳳眼藍 布袋蓮, 凤眼蓝
- Japanese
- ホテイアオイ, 布袋葵
- Catalan
- Jacint d'aigua
- Italian
- Giacinto d'acqua
- Dutch
- waterhyacint
- French
- Jacinthe d'eau
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-24, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-24, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-28, fact, cited
- Wikipedia, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-24, CC BY 4.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0
- 3D model: Eichhornia crassipes (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.