Curly-leaf pondweed is a rhizomatous perennial herb producing a flattened, branching stem up to a meter long.

[7] Potamogeton crispus is native to a wide range of countries in Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia (Sumatra), Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam); Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and Europe.

[8][10] Curly pondweed is widespread and common across most of its native range, growing in standing and slow-flowing water including small ponds and ditches.

However, it is tolerant of significant nutrient pollution, and this has allowed it to persist in intensively farmed areas where more sensitive pondweeds have declined.

It is also able to survive beneath the surface of frozen waterways and resume its rapid vegetative growth before other water plants can regrow.

In common with other pondweeds of this group it roots poorly from stem cuttings and is best propagated by division of the rhizomes or from turions.