Hydrilla
Hydrilla is an aquatic plant, native to cool to warm waters of Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia. Plants may be monecious or dioecious and can reproduce vegetatively by fragmentation and by tubers and turions.
Stems branch near water surface. Dioecious species may be up to 30 feet in length and form surface mats. Leaves are toothed, about 3/4 inch long and 1/4 inch wide. Female flowers are small, white and have 6 petals on long stalks. Male flowers are of inverted bell shape, green.
Hydrilla verticillata became an aquatic weed in the United States in the 1960's following release from aquariums into Florida's waterways. As an invasive species, by the 1990s hydrilla was well-established in the southern states where control and management costs millions of dollars each year. Infestations of Hydrilla verticillata have also been detected in California and Washington. Hydrilla has been spotted as far North as Maryland and Delaware and is slowly spreading to the Midwestern states.
October 2, 2006 6:44 AM | Category: Plants, Weeds