✿Hydrocharitaceae · Hydrilla

Jhangi / Hydrilla

Hydrilla verticillata

HerbMedicinal
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
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

Simple type leaf character
Type
Simple

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.

Illustration representing the Hydrocharitaceae family
Botanical family

Hydrocharitaceae

Frog's-Bit Family

Jhangi belongs to the Hydrocharitaceae family.

The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.

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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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