About Water Hyacinth:
- It is a free-floating, aquatic plant in the pickerelweed family.
- Scientific Name: Eichhornia crassipes
- It is native to tropical regions of South America and is now present on all continents except Antarctica.
- It is one of the world’s most serious water weeds because of its aggressive, fast-growing nature.
- Water hyacinth grows in tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate It grows best in still or slow-flowing fresh water with high nutrient levels.
- It can form dense mats that reduce the water quality, change water flows, and increase sediment.
- It crowds out native aquatic plants and animals, altering ecosystems, destroying habitats, and blocking irrigation systems.
- Cutting a water hyacinth plant into pieces will not kill The plants can reproduce using a process called fragmentation. Each plant also produces thousands of seeds each year.
- This plant varies in size from a few inches to over three feet tall.
- They have showy lavender flowers, and the leaves are rounded and leathery, attached to spongy and sometimes inflated stalks.
- It was introduced to India during the British colonial rule as an ornamental aquatic plant from South America.
- Uses:
- The plant has been used as a biofertilizer in some organic agriculture practices.
- 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.
- 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.
Key Facts about Mula-Mutha River:
- The River Mula and Mutha are very important rivers passing through the centre of Pune
- The Mula and Mutha Rivers originate in the Sahyadri ranges.
- River Mula originates from Mulshi Dam, which forms Mulshi Lake. River Mutha originates from Panshet Dam via Khadakwasla Dam.
- They traverse across Pune city and form the Mula-Mutha River, which eventually joins the Bhima River.
