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A compressible, hydrophobic, and photothermal plant fiber sponge is developed by a simple and efficient physical foaming strategy combined with in-situ vapor and thermal reduction treatment. With favorable hydrophobicity, compressibility, and photothermal conversion capacity, the sponges can be used as an absorbent for high-efficient cleanup of viscous crude oil spill. [Display omitted] • A physical foaming strategy combined with vapor and thermal reduction strategy is developed for preparing hydrophobic plant fiber sponges. • The sponges possess good hydrophobicity, compressibility, photothermal conversion capacity, and high oil absorptive capacity. • The sponges are ideal self-heating absorbent for viscous crude oil spill cleanup. Developing solar-assisted self-heating hydrophobic absorbents for efficient cleanup of viscous crude oil spills is attracting attention. However, using a simple, environment-friendly, and scalable fabrication approach to prepare solar-heating absorbent remains a big challenge. Due to the viscosity of crude oil can enormously decrease with increasing temperature, the self-heating absorbent which can in-situ raise the temperature to decrease the viscosity of crude oil shows potential application in accelerating the absorption and recovery of crude oil. Here, a hydrophobic and photothermal reduced graphene oxide and hexamethyldisilane synergistically modified plant fiber sponge (PFS@rGO@HMDS) is developed by an easy and efficient mechanical foaming strategy combined with in-situ vapor and thermal reduction treatment. The obtained PFS@rGO@HMDS exhibits good hydrophobicity (135° in water contact angle), excellent mechanical compressibility and durability, high solar absorption (>97.84 %), and oil absorptive capacity (27.3–52.0 g/g). Benefiting from the excellent photothermal conversion capacity, the surface temperature at the equilibrium of PFS@rGO@HMDS can reach 71.2 °C under 1 sun irradiation to reduce the viscosity of crude oil and realize the rapid crude oil spill remediation. The PFS@rGO@HMDS also can be used in a continual absorbent system to accomplish the ongoing and quick repair of viscous oil spills from the seawater surface, showcasing its enormous potential for use in huge-scale oil spill clean-up and recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]