Water Hyacinth
Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes [.Mart.] Solms-Laubach) is the
largest of the known floating aquatic macrophytes, reaching a height of as much as
one hundred twenty centimeters. It is a native of South America that was
discovered growing in the Amazon River Basin by Karl Von Martius in 1824. At
the time botanists believed the plant's range to be restricted to South America with
possible excursions into Central America and the larger islands in the Caribbean
(Dinges, 1982). The plant moves readily in the water but is intolerant of high
salinity. Thifs is probably the only reason that its range was restricted since the
Amazon River empties into the ocean and undoubtedly some of the plants escaped
the river. Several theories exist about the water hyacinth's introduction into the
United States, but the most widely accepted is that the Japanese delegation to the
1884 Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans, Louisiana, brought some as an
exhibit and as presents to visitors. A visitor supposedly took some of these plants
to Florida and eventually discarded them in a natural waterway. Since that time,