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  • Pistia stratiotes

      Notifiable Organism, Unwanted Organism, National Pest Plant Accord
    • Water lettuce

    • Scientific Name: Pistia stratiotes
    • Origin: South America
    • Type: Weed
    • Plant Life-form Type: Free-floating
    • Taxonomy: L.
    • Presence: Nationally eradicated, first record from Tauranga in 1975
    • Habitat: Still water bodies in warm areas
    • Temperature (°C): 20 - 28
    • pH range: 6.5 - 7.2
    • Hardness (ppm): 30 - 200
    • Light: Strong
    • Height: 100 - 150mm
    • Difficulty: Easy
    • Notes: A major weed in many warm temperate and tropical countries. Light green lettuce-like foliage that floats on the water's surface.
    • Propagation: Older stolons between individual plants decay to release young plants. Also spreads by seed
    • Features: Free floating perennial herb. Plants are stoloniferous with daughter plants often attached. Leaves are velvety hairy, pale yellow-green, often with a spongy thickened base. Roots are long and finely divided. Flowers are small (about 1 cm long), arranged as a spike enclosed by a hairy green bract.
    • Source: TIFBIS
    • Regional: Regional Pest Management Strategy: AUK.
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