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Hydrilla
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Hydrilla
Hydrilla (waterthyme) is a genus of aquatic plant. It is usually treated as containing just one species — Hydrilla verticillata. But some botanists divide it into several species. It is native to the cool and warm waters of the Old World in Asia, Africa and Australia, with a sparse, scattered distribution; in Australia from Northern Territory, Queensland, and New South Wales.
The stems grow up to 1–2 meters long. The leaves are arranged in whorls of two to eight around the stem, each leaf 5–20 millimeters long and 0.7–2 millimeters broad, with serrations or small spines along the leaf margins; the leaf midrib is often reddish when fresh. It is monoecious (sometimes dioecious), with male and female flowers produced separately on a single plant; the flowers are small, with three sepals and three petals, the petals 3–5 millimeters long, transparent with red streaks. It reproduces primarily vegetatively by fragmentation and by rhizomes and turions (overwintering), and flowers are rarely seen. They have air spaces to keep them upright.
Hydrilla has a high resistance to salinity compared to many other freshwater aquatic plants.Hydrilla can grow up to an inch a day, producing dense mats of vegetation along the bottom of lakes and rivers. As they grow up to the water's surface, these mats can become several feet thick.
Hydrilla closely resembles some other related aquatic plants, including Egeria densa and Elodea canadensis. Synonyms include H. asiatica, H. japonica, H. lithuanica, and H. ovalifolica.[citation needed]
Hydrilla verticillata is negative allelopathic to the common hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum) and prickly hornwort (C. muricatum), that is, it produces compounds that inhibit growth of the latter two species.
As aquatic macrophytes, Hydrilla play critical roles in the ecosystem. They influence nutrient cycles and the ecology of the body of water, as well as the sediments. Hydrilla interacts with other organisms, supplying food and nutrients as well as habitats and shelters.
Hydrilla can have negative impacts in aquatic communities. When abundant, they affect dissolved oxygen levels, which can lead to decline in populations of fish, invertebrates, and other plant species.
Hydrilla is naturalized and invasive in the United States following release in the 1950s and 1960s from aquariums into waterways in Florida, due to the aquarium trade. It is now established in parts of southern Canada and in the United States from Connecticut to Texas, and also in California. By the 1990s control and management were costing millions of dollars each year.
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Hydrilla
Hydrilla (waterthyme) is a genus of aquatic plant. It is usually treated as containing just one species — Hydrilla verticillata. But some botanists divide it into several species. It is native to the cool and warm waters of the Old World in Asia, Africa and Australia, with a sparse, scattered distribution; in Australia from Northern Territory, Queensland, and New South Wales.
The stems grow up to 1–2 meters long. The leaves are arranged in whorls of two to eight around the stem, each leaf 5–20 millimeters long and 0.7–2 millimeters broad, with serrations or small spines along the leaf margins; the leaf midrib is often reddish when fresh. It is monoecious (sometimes dioecious), with male and female flowers produced separately on a single plant; the flowers are small, with three sepals and three petals, the petals 3–5 millimeters long, transparent with red streaks. It reproduces primarily vegetatively by fragmentation and by rhizomes and turions (overwintering), and flowers are rarely seen. They have air spaces to keep them upright.
Hydrilla has a high resistance to salinity compared to many other freshwater aquatic plants.Hydrilla can grow up to an inch a day, producing dense mats of vegetation along the bottom of lakes and rivers. As they grow up to the water's surface, these mats can become several feet thick.
Hydrilla closely resembles some other related aquatic plants, including Egeria densa and Elodea canadensis. Synonyms include H. asiatica, H. japonica, H. lithuanica, and H. ovalifolica.[citation needed]
Hydrilla verticillata is negative allelopathic to the common hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum) and prickly hornwort (C. muricatum), that is, it produces compounds that inhibit growth of the latter two species.
As aquatic macrophytes, Hydrilla play critical roles in the ecosystem. They influence nutrient cycles and the ecology of the body of water, as well as the sediments. Hydrilla interacts with other organisms, supplying food and nutrients as well as habitats and shelters.
Hydrilla can have negative impacts in aquatic communities. When abundant, they affect dissolved oxygen levels, which can lead to decline in populations of fish, invertebrates, and other plant species.
Hydrilla is naturalized and invasive in the United States following release in the 1950s and 1960s from aquariums into waterways in Florida, due to the aquarium trade. It is now established in parts of southern Canada and in the United States from Connecticut to Texas, and also in California. By the 1990s control and management were costing millions of dollars each year.
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