Turning a Weed into Handicraft Products, Water Hyacinth Fiber

Water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes) is a member of the pickerelweed family (Pontederiaceae). The plants vary in size from a few centimeters to over three feet in height. The glossy green, leathery leaf blades are up to 8" long and 2-6 inches wide and are attached to petioles that are often spongy-inflated. Numerous dark, branched, fibrous roots dangle in the water from the underside of the plant. The inflorescence is a loose terminal spike with beautiful showy light-blue to violet flowers (flowers occasionally white). Each flower has 6 bluish-purple petals joined at the base to form a short tube. One petal bears a yellow spot. The fruit is a three-celled capsule containing many minute, ribbed seeds.

Water hyacinth is listed as one of the most productive plants on earth and is considered the world's worst aquatic plant. It forms dense mats that interfere with navigation, recreation, irrigation, and power generation. These mats competitively exclude native submersed and floating-leaved plants. More typically, water-hyacinth damages water quality by blocking sunlight and oxygen and slowing the water's flow. Capable of doubling within a couple of weeks, it can grow faster than any other plant. By choking out other vegetation, it makes an area unusable by plants and animals that live in or depend on the water. Fish spawning areas may vanish. The dense floating mats impede water flow and create good breeding conditions for mosquitoes.

In USA the best way to manage water hyacinth is to prevent it from becoming established. If you purchase water hyacinth at a local nursery, do not dispose of excess plants by throwing them into a lake, river, stream, or drainage ditch! Dispose of all excess plants on a compost heap and away from water. Also do not purchase water hyacinth and deliberately plant it into your lake. This is asking for trouble.

Water hyacinth is controlled through a number of methods including harvesting, aquatic herbicides, and biological control agents. We are developing ways to minimized the impact of these plants on our environments, we studying way to introduce natural enemies of water-hyacinth like the Taosa plant hoppers, Megamelus plant hopper, and the Thrypticus fly, we also inventing many machine chopping down the plant and trying to put them away. We say why not use them and harvest them to help them low income farmer in the tropical and sub tropical region to make products like the mat, furniture and many other products, these natural water hyacinth fiber are strong and can be woven into many pattern and use to make many in door household furnishing products.

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