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.