Kazen Aquatic Water Hyacinth - Pond and Aquarium Plant

Description

The water hyacinth is a floating plant. This invasive nuisance is planta non grata in much of the world where it often jams rivers and lakes with uncounted thousands of tons of floating plant matter. A healthy acre of water hyacinths can weigh up to 200 tons! In the U.S., water hyacinth is present throughout the southeast, as well as in California and Washington state. In Florida, where for 100 years this weed had the upper-hand in water management, the water hyacinth in most places is under “maintenance control”: field crews constantly working to keep the plant numbers at their lowest possible levels, in exchange for the rivers and lakes remaining usable. Eichhornia crassipes grows in all types of freshwaters. They vary in size from a few inches to over three feet tall. They have showy lavender flowers. Their leaves are rounded and leathery, attached to spongy and sometimes inflated stalks. The plant has dark feathery roots. Water hyacinth may be confused with frog’s-bit, Limnobium spongia. Habit water hyacinth is a floating, flowering perennial floating, “obligate” (requiring a wet habitat) linked plants form dense rafts in the water and mud will halt boat traffic on rivers; will cover a lake surface from shore to shore Habitat an aquatic weed worldwide; in lakes, rivers, ponds, ditches of temperate climates temperature tolerance: water hyacinth is not winter-hardy; its minimum growth temperature is 12o C (54o F); its optimum growth temperature is 25-30o C (77-86o F); its maximum growth temperature is 33-35o C (92-95o F) (Kasselmann 1995)