Synnema triflorum

The assignment of Synnema triflorum is inconsistent: botanical name lists treat it as a synonym of Hygrophila difformis.¹² POWO also places Hygrophila triflora in this species from northern Australia and the region from eastern Nepal through India to Sri Lanka and Myanmar.¹ The aquarium literature, by contrast, assigns the name to H. triflora, a separate species from India, Bangladesh and Guam according to Fosberg & Sachet (1981).³

Its submersed leaves are light olive-green to red-brown, lanceolate to narrowly ovate and at most pinnatifid at the margin, whereas in H. difformis they are pinnatifid to pinnatisect.³ H. triflora is well suited to a group in the foreground or midground; it is as easy to keep as H. difformis but grows more slowly.³

1. Hygrophila difformis – Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (WCVP data as of 4 June 2026, accessed 5 October 2026)
2. Hygrophila difformis – Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, eFloras (accessed 5 October 2026)
3. Kasselmann, C. (2019): Aquarienpflanzen. 4th edition (German). - Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart: pp. 385–386.