Map indicates recorded presence in at least one site within the drainage (USGS Hydrologic Unit 8)
but does not necessarily imply occurrence throughout.

Salvinia minima (common salvinia) has been recorded since 1928, from over 690 locations in 89 freshwater drainage basins of Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, South Carolina, Mississippi and Arkansas.

Time Series Map: Salvinia minima

Distribution summaries, highlights, and updates follow:

Florida

1928 First reported for North America in and along the St. Johns River, Florida (Small 1931); documented there with specimens in 1930 and 1931 [Keeley s.n. (PH)].

1937 Known in scattered regions of peninsular Florida from Miami, Sarasota, Gainesville and Bradenton (Jacono et al. 2001).

1967 Increasing in distribution to sites within 12 Florida drainage basins.

1979 Earliest record from the Florida Panhandle [Godfrey 77112 (FLAS)].

2000 Recollected along Blue Spring Run, a tributary of the St. Johns River, 69 years after Keeley’s first collection [Jacono 142 (FLAS)].

2002 Now widely distributed throughout most of the state. Photographed August in north central Florida during low water conditions at the Santa Fe River and the infamous River Styx (#1 and #2).

2003 Expanding its range in the St. Johns drainage where it has been present for many years.  Reported from a subdivision retention pond in Orange Park, FL, where the pond is covered extensively being so early in the season (C. Caudel, R. Kipker and J. Hinkle, pers. comm.).

Still spreading in the Hillsborough drainage where it was found in a private pond in Lutz, FL. The 5 acre pond is completely covered (J. Cuevas, pers. comm.).

2004 Spring heralds a new county record for Salvinia minima, common salvinia, in the Florida panhandle. Specimens were collected this month at a subdivision pond near Pensacola, in the Pensacola Bay drainage of Escambia County [J.R. Burkhalter & J.F. Jordan 19344 (UWFP, USF)]. Located adjacent to a swamp forest, the pond has only recently become infested yet its surface is nearly obscured.

Georgia

1936 First state collections made in open marshes near Savannah [Correll 5422(GA, GH)].

1954 Recorded next at Sapelo Island [Duncan 17770 (FLAS)].

1983 Becoming scattered across southern Georgia.  Entering Lake Seminole at both the Flint River and Chattahoochee arms (A. Gholson herbarium).

2001 Disjunct invasion at a spring fed creek draining the Little Satilla River, in Wayne Co. (Tyre s.n. (FLAS).

2002 Abundant for several years, at dug ponds adjacent to backwater swamps of the Ocmulgee River, north of Lumber City, Telfair Co. [G. Burtle & C. Sexton, pers. comm.; Sexton s.n. (FLAS)].  Concern rests over recent flooding events.

Alabama

1982 New to Alabama, at the Mobile Delta [Reicke s.n. (UNA); Haynes and Jacono 2000)].

1987 Becoming common in creeks and bays of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta (Zolczynski and Eubanks 1990) where populations fluctuate from tremendous to minor as influenced by tropical storms and other weather events.

1998 Increasing, as Hydrilla verticillata slows the natural flow of water in small tidal streams of the Mobile Delta (J. Zolcynski, pers. com.). Extending in range, north to Auburn [Bayne s.n. (UNA)], and east to Gantt Lake, in the Upper Conecuh River drainage [MacDonald 11217 (IBE, VDB).

2002 Moving into the southwestern portion of Alabama.  Appearing at Coffeeville Reservoir, on the Middle Tombigbee River, Choctaw County, in 2001. Later found upstream, at Daub’s Swamp, on the lower Black Warrior River, Marengo Co., in 2002 (J. Jernigan, pers. comm.).

Louisiana

1980 First recorded in south-central Louisiana at canals along Chatsworth Levee, St. Mary Parish (Landry 1981), in the lower Bayou Teche drainage.

1988 Becoming well distributed throughout coastal Louisiana by way of the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway to cover approximately 4000 acres in seven drainage basins, including the extensive Atchafalaya Basin (Montz 1989).

1998 Persisting in Louisiana as far north as Saline Lake, in Winn and Natchitoche Parish, where populations regularly rebound after winter decline.

1999 New to the far eastern region of the state, in diversion canals of the Pearl River (C. Dugas, pers. comm.).  Becoming more common in the far western drainages of the state as well.

2000 Maintaining nuisance levels in canals, trenasses and ponds in the swamps and low salinity marshes of coastal Louisiana, particularly noticeable along the US 90/I-49 highway corridor between Lafayette and New Orleans (K. Vincent, pers. comm.); also problematic in marshes of Vermilion and Cameron Parish.  Clogging outboards and impeding net casting; introduced to rice and crawfish farms through irrigation practices.

Texas

1992 Believed carried to J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area, southeastern Texas, from Louisiana, on a marsh buggy during geologic exploration (Hatch 1995; R. Helton, pers. comm.).

1993 Spreading to most major waterways in coastal Jefferson County.

1998 Extending inland to reservoirs and tributaries, notably B.A. Steinhagen Reservoir, on the lower Neches River, Sam Rayburn Reservoir , on the Angelina River, and Cow Bayou, on the lower Sabine River (L. Hartmann, R. Helton and C. D’Arbonne, pers. comm.).

2000 Most northern Texas infestation discovered in Wichita Falls (M. Howell, pers. comm.); extreme western infestation found in Austin (R. Jones, pers. comm.).  Lake Bayou, Beaumont, one of many cypress swamps on the lower Neches River, becoming heavily infested with S. minima.

2001 Dominating bayous and waterways south of I-10 in Orange and Jefferson counties (R. Helton, pers. comm.).

2004 May Salvinia minima continues to colonize new areas of  B A Steinhagen Lake; discovered on the southern bank at the Campers Cove boat ramp.  USACOE found and immediately treated the colony (H. Elder, pers. comm.).

South Carolina

1999 Well established for many years just west of Great Swamp, at Bass Lake, in the Broad River drainage of Jasper County [S. deKozlowski, pers. comm.; Jacono 118 (USCH)].  Documentation not found for a collection reported from Calhoun County (J. Townsend, pers. comm.).

2002 A population of Salvinia minima was found on Daniel Island, Charleston County.  The plants were discovered during the summer of 2002, in the golf course pond near the entrance of the course .  The site was revisited in July 2004, and no plants were found, so the status of this population remains unknown. This site is surrounded by waters with salinity levels that would be lethal to Salvinia species, so it is likely that this population was eradicated by nature (J. Whetstone, pers. comm.).

Mississippi

1999 First collected at a tributary of the Upper Leaf River, Hattiesburg, where a recently created, landscaped lake is suspected as the source of introduction [Schweizer s.n. (IBE)].

2002 Attention catching infestations discovered at Stennis Space Center, off the southern Pearl River in a canal used to transport rocket engines and fuel to test stands (Lorio s.n. FLAS) and farther west, at St. Catherine Creek National Wildlife Refuge, in Lake Gilliard, a shallow, 650 acre impoundment that receives annual flooding from the Mississippi River (L. Hartmann, pers. comm.).

2004   Lake Tangipahoa, located within the Percy Quin State Park, was found with a huge population of S. minima growing along the northeast margin of the lake.  This represents the first documented occurrence of common salvinia within Pike County, MS [Bryson 20,108 (SWSL)].

Surveys conducted by Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks yield two new waterbodies with common salvinia infestations.  Aberdeen and Columbus Lakes, located along the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, now have large populations of Salvinia minima.  Continuing surveys will document the extent of this species within this waterway (L. Pugh & D. Riecke, pers. comm.).

Arkansas

1999 New to Arkansas, Salvinia minima reaches its most northern U.S. occurrence (34º 30’ N) as populations persist through an exceptionally mild winter at several locals in the Bayou Meto drainage of east-central Arkansas (Peck 1999). Natural areas include the Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area, Arkansas County.

New Mexico

1994 Specimen collected from Aggie Pond, The New Mexico State University campus [Roalson 764 (NMCR)] represents a non-persisting occurrence, not mapped with the data above.

Contributor Acknowledgments

Authors: C.C. Jacono, M. M. Richerson
Updated: 02 November 2004