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Ludwigia adscendens
Onagraceae FAMILY

Ludwigia adscendens

Ludwigia adscendens

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitPerennial
Growth—

Ludwigia adscendens is a plant of the wet tropics, where it is found at elevations up to 1,500 metres. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 15 - 25°c, but can tolerate 8 - 30°c[1]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 1,500 - 3,000mm, but tolerates 1,000 - 4,000mm[1]. Requires a sunny position[1]. Grows best in a fertile clay soil[1]. Prefers a pH in the range 5.5 - 7, tolerating 4.5 - 8.5[1]. The plant can escape from cultivation and become a weed[1]. It is a serious aquatic weed of rice paddy in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines[1]. This plant has two types of roots, one anchors the plant to the soil, whilst the other, which looks like tiny bananas, contains air sacs that keep the plant afloat, and assist respiration[2].

Propagation

Seed - Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Ludwigia+adscendens>

Pollinators

Self

References

  1. [1]Ecocrop — http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home ↩︎Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
  2. [2]Flowers of India — http://www.flowersofindia.net/ ↩︎A wed site of native Indian plants, plus cultivated and naturalized species. It has good quality photos and terse details on more than 3,000 species and cultivars.
  3. [3]Flora Malesiana Series 1 — Various · Nationaal Herbarium Nederiand, Universiteit Leiden branch · http://www.archive.org ↩︎A massive treatment of the plants of the Malaysian Archipelago. Much of it has been made available to download from the Internet
  4. [4]Plant Resources of Southeast Asia — http://proseanet.org/ ↩︎Lots of information on the uses of the plants of SE Asia.
  5. [5]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
  6. [6]Flora of China — Missouri Botanical Garden Press; St. Louis. · 1994 · http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/ ↩︎An excellent, comprehensive resource in 25 volumes. In addition to the botanical information the flora also gives basic information on habitat and some uses. An on-line version is also available.
  7. [7]Medicinal Plants in Vietnam — Nguyen Van Dan & Doan Thi Nhu · World Health Organisation · 1989 · ISBN 92 9061 101 4 ↩︎An excellent book, giving information on over 200 plants, their medicinal compounds and applications.