Aquarium Plants From Thailand: Which Ones Can Be Shipped, in What Form, and What Each Market Bans

Which aquarium plants cannot be sent to the USA or Europe at all?

Plants on the US federal noxious weed list and on the EU list of invasive alien species cannot be imported, with any paperwork. The US list includes Hygrophila polysperma, Limnophila sessiliflora, Hydrilla and Ottelia. The EU list includes Cabomba caroliniana, Myriophyllum aquaticum, two Ludwigia species and Pistia.

The US rule leaves no route for ordinary buyers. The plant import page of the US Department of Agriculture says the propagatable parts of federal noxious weeds:

are prohibited from all countries. These plants may only be imported for research in an APHIS-approved containment facility

Source: Plants with Special Requirements and Prohibited Plants, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, US Department of Agriculture.

The research route also needs a separate federal permit for moving noxious weeds, so it is closed to growers, shops and hobbyists.

The EU rule is wider. A species on the Union list cannot be brought in, kept, sold or grown, and the ban covers seeds and any part that can grow:

Invasive alien species of Union concern shall not be intentionally:

Source: Regulation (EU) No 1143/2014 on invasive alien species, Article 7, EUR-Lex.

Sources: 7 CFR 360.200, eCFR; Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1141, consolidated 7 August 2025; Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019, legislation.gov.uk. US states keep their own lists, which this table does not cover.

The list works at species level, and that matters for Thai growers. A peer-reviewed study of Thai aquatic plant production names the five genera with the highest export demand:

The top-five aquatic plants with high market demand and export value are Anubias, Nymphaea, Echinodorus, Hygrophila, and Cabomba

Source: Limtiyayotin et al., Journal of Applied Biology and Biotechnology, 2024.

Three of the five are not listed anywhere above. Hygrophila and Cabomba are genera with one listed species each: Hygrophila polysperma in the USA, Cabomba caroliniana in the EU and Great Britain. The US Fish and Wildlife Service records Hygrophila polysperma as native to Thailand among other countries in the region, so a plant that grows wild in Thai water can still be refused at a US airport.

Is a plant in a rockwool pot treated as bare root?

No. Rockwool is a growing medium, and the USA does not accept aquarium plants in rockwool from Thailand. Europe and the UK accept unused, soil-free media with an official statement from the exporting country, Canada only under its own approved programme, and Singapore with a nematode declaration.

The US regulation sets the rule:

Plants for planting shipped to the United States must be free of sand, soil, earth, and other growing media.

Source: Plants with Special Requirements and Prohibited Plants, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, US Department of Agriculture.

The exceptions are narrow: a short list of media for epiphytes such as orchids, which does not include rockwool, and programmes approved by APHIS for named plants, media and facilities. The programmes published in the Federal Register cover orchids and a few other ornamentals from other countries, and none names Thailand or an aquatic plant. A potted Cryptocoryne for a US buyer has to be unpotted and washed clean before it leaves Bangkok. The reasons behind the US rule are covered in the guide on sending plants from Thailand to US buyers.

Sources: APHIS and 7 CFR 319.37; Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2072, Annex VII; Canadian Food Inspection Agency directives D-08-04 and D-96-20; National Parks Board, Singapore; Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, Hong Kong.

For Europe and the UK the condition sits in the plant health regulation, where the growing medium rule applies to any medium "with the exception of sterile medium of in-vitro plants". For Singapore, a plant with growing medium needs one more line on the certificate:

Your phytosanitary certificate must include an additional declaration that your plant is free from plant parasitic nematode (PPN).

Source: Importing ornamental plants, nursery stock and seeds, National Parks Board, Singapore.

What changes when the plant is a tissue culture cup?

A tissue culture cup solves the growing medium problem, not the species problem. The USA accepts plants growing in agar, Europe exempts sterile in-vitro medium and Canada accepts sealed aseptic containers, but a cup of a listed species is still a listed species.

The US exception is written narrowly:

Plants growing solely in agar or in other agar-like tissue culture media

Source: Plants with Special Requirements and Prohibited Plants, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, US Department of Agriculture.

The same regulation counts the cup as a plant, so the permit and certificate rules apply to it as to any other plant, except where APHIS's Plants for Planting Manual makes an exception. The definition reads: "Any plant (including any plant part) for or capable of propagation, including a tree, a tissue culture, a plantlet culture". When a commenter asked APHIS in 2018 to accept sterile peat instead of agar, the agency left the agar rule unchanged, so a cup with a different substrate does not qualify.

Canada adds a packing condition: plantlets "must be produced and shipped in sealed, aseptic, transparent containers", and in return they are exempt from the extra declarations for soil-borne pests. The logic of form deciding the paperwork is the same one that applies to orchid flasks, explained in the guide on orchid export from Thailand.

Why does the name on the invoice matter?

The phytosanitary certificate and the permit work by botanical name, and aquarium plants often trade under the wrong one. A listed plant sold under a trade name still gets refused, and a legal plant under a listed name gets stopped.

The US Department of Agriculture's risk assessment of Limnophila sessiliflora gives the clearest case:

In the aquarium plant trade, it is often sold under the name L. heterophylla (Champion et al., 2008), which is an accepted name for an entirely different species (NPGS, 2020).

Source: Weed Risk Assessment for Limnophila sessiliflora, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, 16 June 2020.

The European Commission's identification guide for customs records the same problem with Myriophyllum aquaticum, traded as "Myriophyllum brasiliensis", a synonym of the listed species. The invoice, the certificate and the permit should carry the accepted botanical name, genus and species, and the trade name only in brackets. On the Thai side the rules cover these plants from the start: Thailand's Plant Quarantine Act defines a plant as "all species of plants including terrestrial, aquatic, and other kinds of plants".

How Dragon Courier handles aquarium plants

Dragon Courier holds an import permit for each plant market it serves. The list of plants on each permit is sent on request, and some plants are restricted, so the species list of an aquarium order is matched against the permit for the destination before booking.

The phytosanitary certificate is arranged in Bangkok, free of charge for the USA and the UK. Packing is left to the grower, because each plant has different needs and the people who grow aquatic plants know best how they travel. Shipments move door to door with temperature control on the fastest flight.

Plant service rates, Dragon Courier. The USA plant rate starts at 1,458 THB for 0.5 kg and is 5,120 THB for 5 kg, duty paid. Insurance is not available for live plants.

About Dragon Courier

Dragon Courier is a Bangkok courier, family owned, with more than 30 years in logistics in Thailand and more than 20,000 shipments a month to over 200 destinations. It is the number one exporter of live plants in Thailand, with plant markets in the USA, Canada, Europe, the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong, and an importer of record service for US buyers. When there is a hold at US customs, the team works with USDA and the seller in Thailand to get a release.

Contacts and drop-off

The plant names, the form they travel in and the destination are enough to check a shipment against the permit. Office +66 2656 9019, Justin is on LINE and WhatsApp at +66 6-5937-0812, or info@dragoncourier.com. Drop-off runs until 17:00, Monday to Saturday, at the Bangkok office on Sukhumvit Soi 4 (217/3 Crystal Garden Building, 3rd floor, Klongtoey 10110) or the Chiang Mai office on Viangbua Road, and a pickup can be arranged for a date and time that suits. Is every plant on the list written with its botanical name?