Eichhornia

Scientific name: Eichhornia crassipes
Common name: Waterhyacinth
Classification:
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order:Liliales
Family: Pontederiaceae
Genus:Eichhornia
Habitat: Eichhornia crassipes is found in large lakes, reservoirs, rivers, wetlands, marshes, and shallow, transient ponds with slow moving waters. Extremes in pH, temperature, and toxic substance availability are all things that plants can withstand, along with seasonal fluctuations in flow velocity and fluctuations in water level.

General characters:
• Eichhornia crassipes is a free-floating macrophyte that can grow to be upto 1 m tall, though it is usually only 0.5 m tall.
• Because it floats freely, the water column provides all of its nutrients.
• Leaves are thick, waxy, rounded, and glossy and rise well above the water surface on stalks. • Leaf veins are dense, numerous, fine and longitudinal. Leaf stalks are bulbous and spongy. • The flowers have six petals, purplish blue or lavender to pinkish, the uppermost petal with a yellow, blue-bordered central splotch.
• Water hyacinth reproduces vegetatively by short runner stems (stolons) that radiate from the base of the plant to form daughter plants, and also reproduces by seed. Its roots are purplish black and feathery.