Nymphoides hydrophylla

Nymphoides hydrophylla, commonly known as crested floating-heart,^[1] is an aquatic plant of the family Menyanthaceae native to Taiwan. It has cordate floating leaves that support a lax inflorescence of dainty white flowers with fringed petal margins. Its slim stem (spear) is edible, and is used as vegetable in Taiwan, mostly produced at Meinong District, Kaohsiung.

Nymphoides hydrophylla
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Asterales
Family:	Menyanthaceae
Genus:	Nymphoides
Species:	N. hydrophylla
Binomial name
Nymphoides hydrophylla (Lour.) Kuntze, 1891
Synonyms[citation needed]
Limnanthemum cristatum (Roxb.) Griseb. Nymphoides cristata H.Hara, 1937

Flowers of N.  hydrophylla are gynodioecious.^[2] The fruit is a capsule bearing many flattened seeds.

The plants are commonly sold for use in ornamental water gardens. Outside their native range they can escape cultivation and become nuisance weeds, particularly in Florida. They are not killed by freezing, and have been reported in Lake Marion, South Carolina.^[3]