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  • Eichhornia crassipes

      Notifiable Organism, Unwanted Organism, National Interest Pest Response, National Pest Plant Accord
    • Water hyacinth

    • Scientific Name: Eichhornia crassipes
    • Origin: Sotuh America, Amazon basin, western Brazil
    • Type: Weed
    • Plant Life-form Type: Free-floating
    • Taxonomy: (Mart.) Solms-Laub.
    • Presence: Locally naturalised, subject to a national eradication programme since 1950's, first record from Rotorua in 1950
    • Habitat: Still and slow flowing water bodies in warm areas
    • Temperature (°C): 20 - 26
    • pH range: 6.8 - 7.2
    • Hardness (ppm): 30 - 150
    • Light: Low - High
    • Height: 200mm
    • Difficulty: Easy
    • Notes: A major weed in many warm temperate and tropical countries. Now universal in most temperate & tropical waterways. A pest plant. Not suitable for indoor aquaria. Should not be held by aquarists.
    • 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 bright green, often with a spongy inflated petiole. Roots are long and finely divided, and are bright purple when young before becoming black. Flowers are large (7 cm in diameter) in a spike of up to 10 flowers. They are blue-purple with a central yellow eye surrounded by a dark ring on the uppermost petal.
    • Source: TIFBIS
    • Regional: Regional Pest Management Strategy: NTL, AUK.
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