These plants become so numerous and grow so rapidly that they are considered as damaging plants to dams and water reservoirs. It is a very beautiful plant due to the combination of the bright green elbow of its foliage with the lilac-blue of its inflorescences.
▶ The foliage of this plant is very striking for the reason that the petioles of the leaves form a balloon due to the aeriferous tissue that serves as a float for the plant.
▶ Credits: Alchetron. – [Image of Public Domain]
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The flowers of Eichhornia crassipes have a blue-lilac color, are large and showy and are grouped in a cluster inflorescence; they are very similar to orchids. This plant is used as an ornamental in garden ponds where it grows together with other aquatic plants.
As for reproduction, being a plant with flowers that reproduce sexually by originating a fruit in the form of a capsule, it can multiply by this procedure, but its prodigious proliferation and the simplest artificial reproduction is carried out by division of the stolons.
This division occurs in the stolons that the seedlings emit during the favorable season, originating, naturally, a dense vegetal network capable of colonizing in a short time a large aquatic surface, forming a tapestry that can impede navigation.
When Eichhornia crassipes is used in aquaculture, it should be placed in outdoor ponds in the open air during the summer, so that tillering occurs quickly. As temperatures drop, they should be placed indoors in spacious tanks filled with water at mid-height and with the light ramp separated from the top of the plant to prevent drying and burning.
NOTE: Reference material.
The flowers are so beautiful
I remember seeing a documentary about this as an invasive species and also about turning this into profitable fiber.