Eichhornia

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Water hyacinth
Common Water hyacinth.jpg
Common water hyacinth ( Pontederia crassipes )
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Commelinales
Family: Pontederiaceae
Genus: Eichhornia
Kunth
Species

Four species (from Pellegrini et al. 2018): [1]
Eichhornia azurea - Anchored water hyacinth
Eichhornia diversifolia - Variableleaf water hyacinth
Eichhornia heterosperma
Eichhornia natans

Contents

Eichhornia, commonly called water hyacinths, was a polyphyletic genus of the aquatic flowering plants family Pontederiaceae. Since it was consistently recovered in three independent lineages, it has been sunk into Pontederia , together with Monochoria . Each of the three lineages is currently recognized as subgenera in Pontederia:

Pontederia subg. Eichhornia is pantropical, centered in South America but with P. natans being endemic to continental Africa and Madagascar. The other three species are restricted to the Neotropics.

It was named in honour of Friedrich Eichhorn  [ de ], an early-19th-century Prussian minister of education. [2]

Description

Its species are perennial aquatic plants (or hydrophytes) with prostrate and densely branched stems. The inflorescences can have one to 30 conspicuously attractive flowers, mostly lavender to pink in colour, rarely white.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pontederiaceae</span> Family of aquatic plants

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<i>Pontederia</i> Genus of aquatic plants

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<i>Pontederia crassipes</i> Aquatic plant native to the Amazon basin

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<i>Pontederia azurea</i> Species of aquatic plant

Pontederia azurea is a water hyacinth from the Americas, sometimes known as anchored water hyacinth. It is the type species of Pontederia subg. Eichhornia, which was previously recognized as part of the polyphyletic genus Eichhornia. It is of some interest as an aquarium plant.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monochoria</span> Genus of flowering plants

Monochoria was originally a genus of aquatic plants in the water hyacinth family, Pontederiaceae. Currently, it has been reduced to a subgenus of Pontederia, Pontederia subg. Monochoria, represented by ten species. Its species are native to tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia, and Oceania. They live in the water or in wet soils. They produce leaves on long petioles and some are cultivated for their attractive flowers. Plants from this species have been utilized in the creation of traditional herbal treatments, food, and cosmetics for a very long time.

Cornops aquaticum is a semiaquatic species of grasshopper native to the Neotropics, from southern Mexico south to central Argentina and Uruguay. It feeds and breeds exclusively on members of the aquatic plant family Pontederiaceae, especially water hyacinth, and is being investigated as a possible biological pest control agent for the water hyacinth in countries where that plant is invasive.

<i>Megamelus scutellaris</i> Insect species

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References

  1. Pellegrini, M. O. O.; Horn, C. N. & Alemida, R. F. (2018). "Total evidence phylogeny of Pontederiaceae (Commelinales) sheds light on the necessity of its recircumscription and synopsis of Pontederia L." PhytoKeys (108): 25–83. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.108.27652 . PMC   6160854 . PMID   30275733.
  2. Umberto Quattrocchi (19 April 2016). CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants. CRC Press. p. 1524. ISBN   978-1-4822-5064-0. Named after Johann Albrecht Friedrich Eichhorn, [...] a Prussian minister of education and public welfare, court advisor