REPORT

Common name : Water hyacinth

Family : Pontederiaceae

Scientific name : Eichhornia crassipes

Native : South America

• It is also known as the Terror of Bengal because it is an exotic shrub which is growing at
an alarming rate on the surface of water body. It inhibits the grow of fish and other
aquatic organisms due to cut down of light and lack of oxygen.

❖ Characteristics
• Eichhornia crassipes, commonly called water hyacinth.
• Native to Brazil
• Free-floating, frost-tender aquatic perennial
• Used as an ornamental plant in water gardens
• Produces rosettes of thick, leathery, ovate to rounded, glossy green leaves with
inflated, bulbous leaf petioles that act as floats.

• Erect stalk supports a single spike of up to 30 conspicuously attractive flowers, mostly

lavender to pink in colour with six petals

❖ Propagation
• Water hyacinth, can reproduce both sexually and by vegetative propagation. It
propagates by offsets, which are short thick runners that produce a new plant at their
tip.

❖ Use
• The water hyacinth that is collected can be used to feed animals, or processed to
improve the soil, as compost or biochar.
• Dried hyacinth beans have been shown to improve digestion in certain people.
• The plant is also used to cure a variety of gastrointestinal ailments, including nausea
and upset stomach, as well as bowels, diarrhoea, and worms.
• Hyacinth is commonly included in cosmetics and personal care products.
• For the treatment of a wide variety of skin conditions, water hyacinth is an excellent
option because of the antimicrobial, antifungal, and antibacterial qualities that it
possesses.

❖ Water Hyacinth can be stopped by using physical, chemical, and

biological methods.

• Physical way: Spread of water hyacinth can be done in a physical way by cutting the
plant. you can use manual ways and machines for the same.
• Biological way: Environment friendly ways like use of water hyacinth borer,
Neochetina bruchi, N. eichhorniae feed on water hyacinth. By this way, their size gets
reduced, vegetative propagation gets reduced and also impacts seed production.
• Chemical way: Chemicals like glyphosate, diquat and 2,4 ‐D amine,
metsulfuronmethyl, sulfosate and sulfentrazone can help in spread of water hyacinth.