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| NAS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species |
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Common Name: water-hyacinth
Synonyms and Other Names: water-hyacinth, common water-hyacinth, floating water-hyacinth
Taxonomy: available through 
Identification: Floating perennial plants with thick, glossy leaves (12-15 cm wide) that are obovate to lanceolate. Leaves are held above the water by bulbous, spongy inflated petioles (to 30 cm long). Roots are pendant, typically dark in color and feathery. Showy lavender flower spikes (sometimes pale blue to white) bloom summer to early fall and are insect pollinated; individual flowers are 4-6 cm wide and have six lobes with the upper lobe enlarged and a central yellow spot surrounded by dark blue.
Native Range:
Brazil, South America.
Nonindigenous Occurrences: Often extemely problematic in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and eastern Texas. Also established in California and Hawaii. Found persisting as far north as the Lower Cheaspeake [P. Baldwin s.n. (WILLI)] and Tidewater regions of coastal Virginia (pers. comm. L. Swanson, VA Coop. Ext. Agency). Weedy in North Carolina north and inland to the Upper Tar and Neuse River drainages (pers. comm. Stratford Kay, NC State Univ.). Intermittently distributed in Georgia and Mississippi.
Waif or nonpermanent populations have been reported from more temperate states including Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas where plants apparently escape summertime cultivation to grow as annuals, but do not persist vegetatively through the winter. Water-hyacinth is stocked annually in private fish ponds throughout southern Arizona and in Delaware at old mill ponds. It has been reported from the GreatCypress Swamp, southern Delaware and from isolated, natural locals in New Jersey. Water-hyacinth is capable of reproducing by seed. However, it is not known if recurrence by seed plays a role in the waif populations of these temperate states.
Means of Introduction: Sold as an ornamental for fish ponds; sometimes escapes or is intentionally introduced into larger water bodies such as lakes and reservoirs.
Status:
Impact of Introduction: Grows at explosive rates - leading to clogged waterways, altered water temperature and chemistry, and the exclusion of native plants and wildlife.
Remarks:
References
Other Resources: Originally formatted NAS fact sheet (Oct 2003)
Author: C.C. Jacono, M.M. Richerson and V. Howard
Revision Date: 12/7/2007 Citation for this information:
C.C. Jacono, M.M. Richerson and V. Howard. 2009. Eichhornia crassipes. USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL.
<http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.asp?speciesID=1130> Revision Date: 12/7/2007
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