Water Hyacinth in Florida:
Then and Now

Harper's Weekly 1989 Article on Water Hyacinth Infesting the St. John's River
Text Box: Illustration of water hyacinth infesting Florida's St. Johns River, published in an 1898 issue of Harper's Weekly magazine. The author of the accompanying article said, 'I have seen vessels going at full speed brought to a complete standstill.”

"WATER HYACINTHS AREN'T SOMETHING WE HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THESE DAYS," said the fisherman while boating the St. Johns River. "Used to be I couldn't get my boat into the water, there were so many plants, but today there's not a problem."

The fisherman is only partly correct - he is able to get his boat into the river now - because there are only few water hyacinth plants now. But he's also incorrect, because we do have to worry about water hyacinths today.

Florida has been managing water hyacinths for more than 100 years and has succeeded in greatly reducing the number of these plants. So for many people the water hyacinths don’t seem to be a problem at all.

Florida spends over $70 million dollars in plant management every year. If not for this maintenance effort our lakes, rivers, canals and wetlands would quickly be covered by invasive aquatic plants.

Today there are many significant non-naïve aquatic and terrestrial plants on the loose in Florida’s waters and wetlands. Hydrilla, water hyacinth, melaleuca, and torpedo grass are very costly in terms of management and control. This management effort actually protects Florida’s natural environment and our tourism industry.

For more information on the subject, visit: http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/guide/intrguid.html

Name:  ______________________________________ Class Period:_____ Date:___________

 

Directions: Answer the following questions using information from the passage above.

 

1. Are water hyacinths a problem in Florida today?

 

 

2. How much money does the state of Florida spend on the removal of water hyacinths?

 

 

3. Do you think we should spend that much money on removing water hyacinth?

 

 

4. What do you think will happen if we don’t remove water hyacinth from our rivers and lakes?

 

 

5. What would you do if you were responsible for a lake or waterbody that was overgrown with water hyacinth?

Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants, UF/IFAS

A collaboration of the UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants
and the Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Invasive Plant Management.
SSS: SC.G.1.2, SC.H.3.2, SC.G.2.2, SC.H.1.2 LA.A.1.2, LA.A.2.2, LA.E.2.2
UE/EA 2/18/07