Waterhyacinth

Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms, in DC. Monog. I'han. 4: 527
1883.
Ponlederia crassipes Mart. Nov. Gen. 1: 9. 1823.
Pontederia azurea Hook. Bot. Mag. pi. 2932, excl. syn. 1829. No1 P. a urea Sw. ['
Piaropus crassipes Raf. Fl. Tell. 2:81. 1837.
Piaropus mesomelas Raf. Fl. Tell. 2: 81. 1837.
Piaropus tricolor Raf. Fl. Tell. 2:81. 1837.
Eichhornia speciosa Kunth, Knnm. PI. 4: 131. 1843.
Heler anther a formosa Miq. Linnaea 17: 61. 1843.
Pontederia elongala Bali. Proc. Rot. Soc. Edinb. 1855: 50. 1855.
Eichhornia crassicaulis Schlecht. Abh. Nat. Ges. Halle 6: 177. 1862.
Pontederia crassicaulis Schlecht. Abh. Nat. Ges. Halle 6: 177. 1862.
Piaropus crassipes Britton, Ann. N. Y. Acad. 7: 241. 1893.
Eii hhornia cordifolia Gand. Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. 66: 294. 1920.
Plant flcating, the stems short-branched, a separate plant arising from each mule, with many long, pendent, plumose roots; leaves erect or spreading, with petioles varying in length from 2 to 30 cm., the shorter ones much inflated, the inflation decreasing to none in the longest ones; stipules 2-15 cm. long, with a differentiated blade-like portion above which is orbicularreniform and more or less lacerate; spathe-bracts close together, usually the lower and occasionally the upper with blades similar to the leaves but much smaller; inflorescence spiciform, 4-15 cm. long, closely puberulent with crisped, often glandular hairs: flowers lilac or rarely white, the upper perianth-lobe with a deep-violet-blue blotch with a bright-yellow spot in its center, the three outer lobes narrowly elliptic, the three inner broadly so, all acutish, the three upper lobes 3 cm. long, the three lower 3.7 cm. long, the tube 16-20 mm. long; filaments pubescent, the hairs sometimes gland-tipped; anthers linear, bluish; style pale, sparsely puberulent; stigma 3-lobed, but appearing capitate and brush-like due to its dense brush of gland-tipped hairs; capsule 1.5 cm. long, the seeds obcolumnar, yellow-brown, 1.2 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide at base, 0.6 mm. wide at top, with 10 membranous wings, the seed-coat horizontally striate.
Type locality: In still water of the San Francisco River near Malhada in the vicinity of the boundary between Minas Geraes and Bahia, Brazil.
Distribution: Georgia and Florida to Texas; Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies; also in South America; naturalized in California and in tropical regions throughout the world.