Americanized Water Hyacinth Gardens: Aquaria, Confined Ponds or Pools

Summary: Light, moisture and temperature control pickerelweed and water hyacinth in aquaria, confined ponds or contained pools in Americanized water hyacinth gardens.

water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) near Arenal Volcano (Volcán Arenal), northwestern Costa Rica; Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009, 11:07; image #070123-3662: Hans Hillewaert, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Americanized water hyacinth gardens allow aquatic ornamentals in the Pontederiaceae family of floating or rooted herbaceous pickerelweeds to assume less weedy habits within confined ponds, contained pools and indoor or outdoor aquaria.

Pathogen- and pest-free subtropical and tropical niches bring about eco-unfriendly consequences in carefree rhizome reproduction and seed production clogging generators, pumps and waterways and commandeering resources. Connecticut calls water hyacinth a weed and Florida considers it a weed along with arrowleaf false pickerelweed, heartshape false pickerelweed, rooted water hyacinth and tropical pickerelweed. Arizona and Texas describe it and rooted water hyacinth as weeds and California and South Carolina designate them and arrowleaf and heartshape false pickerelweeds as unwelcome.

Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon and Vermont excoriate Central and South America's rooted water hyacinth and east and south Asia's heartshape, and southeast Asia's arrowleaf, false pickerelweeds.

One embryonic leaf, called a cotyledon, and then two or three straplike, 0.19- to 0.59-inch- (5- to 15-millimeter-) long leaves furnish foliage 10 days after germination.

Mature basal, oval to round, succulent, thick, waterproof, 0.98- to 3.94-inch- (2.5- to 10-centimeter-) long foliage grows 1.38 to 3.74 inches (3.5 to 9.5 centimeters) across. It has bulblike, inflated, 1.38- to 12.99-inch- (3.5- to 33-centimeter-) long stalks, float-friendly swelling on one side, heart-shaped foliar bases, smooth margins and waxy green colors. It generally includes few bulbous leaf bases for anchorage and always involves paired, 0.98- to 5.51-inch- (2.5- to 14-centimeter-) long membranes, called stipules, at its bases.

Americanized water hyacinth gardens juggle frost-intolerant, growth-friendly, sunny temperatures of 53.6 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit (12 to 35 degrees Celsius) for heat-tolerant, moisture-loving leaves and stems.

Branched, elongated, underground, 1.97- to 17.72-inch- (5- to 45-centimeter-) long stems, called rhizomes, 2.36 inches (6 centimeters) in diameter keep water hyacinth in yearly freeze zones.

Water hyacinth, called floating hyacinth and water-orchid commonly and Eichhornia crassipes ([Johann Albrecht Friedrich] Eicchorn's thick foot) scientifically, lasts until rhizomes lose tips to killing freezes. Purple to black, feathery, submerged roots make up 50-plus percent of water hyacinth biomass and move 70 laterals per 0.39 inch (1 centimeter) of total biomass. Their dissolved nutrients nourish four- to 25-flowered, lavender to blue-blooming, unbranched, 11.81-inch- (30-centimeter-) long inflorescences called spikes atop 1.97- to 19.68-inch- (5- to 50-centimeter-) tall stalks.

Two flower-encasing, leaf-like, 1.58- to 4.33-inch- (4- to 11-centimeter-) long bracts, called spathes, open two hours after sunrise in May- to September-blooming Americanized water hyacinth gardens.

Perfect flowers, 1.38 to 2.36 inches (3.5 to 6 centimeters) across, present one pistil, three pollen-receiving stigma and six stamens 100 to 120 days after germination.

Three to 450 ovoid seeds quit up to 20 fruit capsules 18 days after pollen production by violet, 0.06- to 0.09-inch- (1.4- to 2.2-millimeter-) long anthers. End-of-the-day wilts remove each flower's enlarged upper petal with a blue-ringed yellow spot, pistil, two two-lipped lateral petals, three sepals and six stamens from nightfall's view. Three sunny days at 41 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (5 to 40 degrees Celsius) sprout 12- to 15-ridged, 0.04- to 0.08-inch- (1.1- to 2.1-millimeter-) long seeds.

Light-, moisture- and temperature-sensitive controls tether 15- to 20-year viable, 0.02- to 0.04-inch- (0.6- to 0.9-millimeter-) wide seeds and promiscuous rhizomes in Americanized water hyacinth gardens.

water hyacinth's blackened roots; Laie Wetlands, Kihei, southwestern Maui; Jan. 23, 2007, 13:5:07: Forest and Kim Starr (Starr Environmental), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) near Arenal Volcano (Volcán Arenal), northwestern Costa Rica; Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009, 11:07: Hans Hillewaert, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eichhornia_crassipes_(habitus)_1.jpg

water hyacinth's blackened roots; Laie Wetlands, Kihei, southwestern Maui; Jan. 23, 2007, 13:55:07; image #070123-3662: Forest and Kim Starr (Starr Environmental), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/starr-environmental/24251936534/;
Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 4.0 International, via Starr Environmental @ http://www.starrenvironmental.com/images/image/?q=24251936534

For further information:

Dickinson, Richard; and Royer, France. 2014. Weeds of North America. Chicago IL; London, England: The University of Chicago Press.

"Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/26100027

Modzelevich, Martha. "Eicchornia crasspies, Piaropus crassipes, Eicchornia speciosa, Common Water Hyacinth, Hebrew: יקינטון המים ,איכהורניה עבת-רגל, Arabic: Ward en-nil." Flowers in Israel.
Available @ http://www.flowersinisrael.com/Eichhorniacrassipes_page.htm

Solms-Laubach, Hermann Maximilian Carl Ludwig Friedrich Graf zu. 1883. "2. E. crassipes." Monographiae Phanerogamarum Prodromi Nunc Continuato Nunc Revisio, vol. quartum: 527-528. Geneva, Switzerland: Imprimerie Charles Schuchardt.
Available via Biblioteca Digital @ http://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/ing/Libro.php?Libro=4179

Weakley, Alan S.; Ludwig, J. Christopher; and Townsend, John F. 2012. Flora of Virginia. Edited by Bland Crowder. Fort Worth TX: BRIT Press, Botanical Research Institute of Texas.