Whence
Water hyacinth
Plant

Where does Water hyacinth come from?

Water hyacinth comes from the Amazon basin in South America. Gardeners carried this floating plant with lilac flowers far from home, and it is now one of the world's worst weeds, choking lakes and rivers across the tropics.

A floater from the Amazon

Water hyacinth floats freely on lakes and slow-moving streams. Its glossy leaves rise from spongy, bulb-like stalks that keep it afloat, and feathery purple-black roots hang down in the water. Its native range is the Amazon basin, and it was described scientifically in 1823 from the South American tropics. Two clues point there: its genetic diversity is highest in South America, and only in its native lowlands do populations have all three of its flower forms.

Carried away for its flowers

An upright stalk carries 8 to 15 showy flowers, mostly lavender to pink, and that beauty is what spread it. After it was described, it was planted in a botanic garden in Southeast Asia. From there, thrown into a river, it spread rapidly over tropical Asia. It reached Europe by 1880 and has since been carried to more than 50 countries on five continents, often to decorate ponds.

Why people think of Southeast Asia

In much of tropical Asia the plant is so common that it seems at home. It has become a serious pest from the Kerala Backwaters in India to the Tonlé Sap in Cambodia, and people have found uses for it: it is cooked as a vegetable in parts of East and Southeast Asia, and in many places it is made into furniture, handbags and baskets. Away from South America it has few natural enemies, and its mats can double in size in one to two weeks.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org ↗ · riviste.unige.it ↗

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