Water hyacinth

About Water hyacinth:

• It is a perennial, free-floating aquatic plant native to tropical regions of South America, and now present on all continents except Antarctica.
• This plant rapidly increase biomass and form dense mats in lakes, dams and irrigation channels and chokes them.
• This is not an indigenous species but was introduced to India during the British colonial rule as an ornamental aquatic plant from South America. The plant produces beautiful purple flowers that have high aesthetic value. 
• It is rich in fibrous stems that can be processed into a wide array of handbags, interior decorative material, table mats, baskets and other products.
• Impact on environment: This simple, floating aquatic plant is also an obnoxious weed that has been suffocating surface freshwater sources like rivers, rivulets, streams, ponds, dams, lakes and bogs, making the waterbodies unsuitable for commercial fishery, transportation and recreation.
• Significance
  • The plant has been used as a bio-fertiliser in some organic agriculture
  • It has been reported that this plant is a good phytoremediation species, suggesting it has the ability to trap and remove toxic metabolites and harmful heavy metals from water.