Plant

Giant Salvinia

Salvinia molesta

Giant Salvinia (Salvinia molesta) photographed by Devendra Bhardwaj — Image: Devendra Bhardwaj · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Vaishali Nagar, Jaipur, Rajasthan · Resized

Giant Salvinia (Salvinia molesta) photographed by Devendra Bhardwaj — Image: Devendra Bhardwaj · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Thana, Jaipur, Rajasthan · Resized

Scientific name: Salvinia molesta
Family: Salviniaceae, order Salviniales
Group: Plant

A floating fern that forms green mats.

Spot it Velvety floating leaves in pairs.
Home Still water.
Food web Small water animals shelter beneath it.
Why it matters Shelters pond life, though ponds also need open water.

Read more: Salvinia molesta on Wikipedia

Sources and credits

Records and field notes

RajasthanDevendra Bhardwaj has 2 verified records of this species on iNaturalist in 2026, in Jaipur.^[20]

Sources

Devendra Bhardwaj. iNaturalist observations and notes, with place and date (inaturalist.org/people/devendrabhardwaj) (field record). The observer's own dated records and notes, with places. Statements in his notes are his own and were not independently checked by KJVF.
GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF species data (family, order, Hindi names, IUCN category) (database). Open biodiversity data. Used for classification, Hindi common names and the IUCN category where one is given.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (opening lines of each species article, CC BY-SA 4.0). The link on each entry goes to the article (reference). Not peer reviewed. Only the opening description is used, and statements about origin or medicinal use are left out.
Short introductions and key points written with AI help (Google Gemini and Claude) and checked against GBIF where possible (reference). AI-assisted text for general readers. Please check important details before relying on them.

The tag before each record shows the place it was checked for.

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