Jhangi / Hydrilla
Hydrilla verticillata
- Habit
- Herb
- Found in India
- West Bengal, Gujarat, Kerala & more
- Flowering
- Throughout the year
How to identify Jhangi
Identify Jhangi by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a herb habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Small leaves in whorls along a submerged stem.
- Confirm leaf arrangement: Whorled.
- Confirm leaf shape: Linear (long and narrow, parallel sides).
- Confirm flower colour: Red.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: Throughout the year.
- In India, compare location records such as West Bengal, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra and nearby regions.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Hydrilla verticillata
- Genus
- Hydrilla
- Family
- Hydrocharitaceae
- Habit
- Herb
- Habitat
- Stagnant ponds
- Habitat type
- Wetland
- Native to
- Old World tropics
- Distribution
- Old World tropics
- Found in India
- West Bengal, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand
- Flowering & fruiting
- Throughout the year
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (LC)
Leaf characters
- Leaf arrangement
- WhorledrecordedThree or more leaves arise from the same point around the stem.“The leaves are arranged in whorls of two to eight around the stem, each leaf 5–20 mm long and 0.7–2 mm broad, with serrations or small spines along the leaf margins;” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Leaf shape
- Linear (long and narrow, parallel sides)recorded
Typical of the family
Characters marked “recorded” are for Jhangi itself; the rest are typical of the Hydrocharitaceae family.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Redrecorded“the flowers are small, with three sepals and three petals, the petals 3–5 mm long, transparent with red streaks.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Characters marked “recorded” are for Jhangi itself; the rest are typical of the Hydrocharitaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Hindi
- Jhangi, Kureli,हाइड्रिल्ला haidrilla
- Nepali
- पानी उन्यु Paanee Unyu
- Bengali
- Jhangi, Kureli, Saola
- Tamil
- Amiranappaci, Chikavalakam, Chimpaka
- Malayalam
- Ene-pael
- Marathi
- Seval, Shakharisheval
About Jhangi
A member of the Hydrocharitaceae family, Hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata) is a herb. In India it has been recorded in West Bengal, Gujarat, Kerala and 16 other states. It grows in stagnant ponds. It flowers and fruits through much of the year.

Hydrocharitaceae
Frog's-Bit Family
Jhangi belongs to the Hydrocharitaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Hydrocharitaceae familySnap it. Know it.
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Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
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