Jallil / Tapegrass
Vallisneria spiralis
- Habit
- Herb
- Found in India
- Karnataka, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh & more
- Flowering
- October-April
How to identify Jallil
Identify Jallil 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: Long ribbon-like leaves, flower stalk coils into a spiral (tapegrass).
- Confirm leaf shape: Linear.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: October-April.
- In India, compare location records such as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Hydrocharitaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Jallil.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Vallisneria spiralis
- Genus
- Vallisneria
- Family
- Hydrocharitaceae
- Habit
- Herb
- Distribution
- Cosmopolitan
- Found in India
- Karnataka, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal
- Flowering & fruiting
- October-April
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (LC)
Leaf characters
- Leaf shape
- LinearrecordedVery long and narrow with roughly parallel sides.“== Overview == It has narrow, linear leaves that range in colour from a pale-green to reddish up to 3 feet (1 m) long and up to 0.75 inches broad.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Typical of the family
Characters marked “recorded” are for Jallil itself; the rest are typical of the Hydrocharitaceae family.
Local Names
- Hindi
- Jallil, Sawala, Sewal
- Nepali
- फुल्के कमल Phulke Kamal
- Tamil
- Chalanili, Jalanili, Valukkuppaci
- Kannada
- Hasururibbongida, Kudarebaladagida
- Marathi
- Phiti-Chesaivale, Seval
About Jallil
Tapegrass (Vallisneria spiralis) is a herb in the Hydrocharitaceae family. In India it has been recorded in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh and 8 other states. Flowering and fruiting run from October to April.
Hydrocharitaceae
Frog's-Bit Family
Jallil belongs to the Hydrocharitaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Hydrocharitaceae familySnap it. Know it.
Point your camera at Jallil or any plant and SASYA identifies it instantly — on-device, offline, and private.
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.
All plant problem & care guides