• Family : PONTEDERIACEAE
  (Pickerel-Weed Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : JALKUMBHI FAMILY (जलकुम्भी फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : PONTEDERIACEAE
• Basionym : Pontederia vaginalis Burm.f.
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Monochoria vaginalis (Burm.f.) C.Presl
• Common name : Pickerel Weed
• Vernacular name : Valukkaikeerai (Tamil); Indivareh (Sanskrit); Mirmira (Oria); Niru kanchanam (Telugu); Kakkapole, Karimkovalum, Kolachempu (Malayalam)
• Habit : Herb
• Habitat : Paddy fields and wet lowlands
• Comments / notes : In margins of fresh water pools, ponds and wet rice fields, on hills to about 1500m.
• Flower, Fruit : May-November
• Distribution :
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Maharashtra : Bhandara district, Chandrapur district, Kolhapur district, Nagpur district, Raigad district, Ratnagiri district, Sindhudurg district, Thane district, Yavatmal district
  • Odisha : Throughout Odisha
• Native : Tropical Asia, Australia
• World Distribution : India, Nepal, Bhutan, Malesia, Himalayas, China, Japan
• Conservation Status : Least Concern (LC)
• Literature : H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1995- Flora of Orissa Vol. 3; R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District; H. O. Saxena and M. Brahmam, 1989 - The Flora of Similipahar (Similipal), Orissa; IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. ; N.P.Singh, 1988. Flora of Eastern Karnataka; B. D. Sharma, S. Karthikeyan & N. P. Singh 1996 - Flora of Maharashtra state - Monocotyledons; Matthew, K.M., The Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (2). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Monochoria vaginalis. Downloaded on 20 May 2024.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

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Field Image(s)