Plant Management in Florida Waters
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Crested floating heart
Quick Facts
- Scientific name: Nymphoides cristata
- Origin: Asia
- Introduction: Mid-1990s, aquatic garden trade
- Aquatic community: Emergent / floating leaf
- Habitat: Water 2-10 feet deep
- Distribution: Peninsular Florida, many South FL canals
- Management effort: Eradication in North Florida lakes
Maintenance in South Florida canals - 2020 Acres Treated: 25
Environmental and Economic Concerns
- Rooted in the substrate in 2-10 feet of water with petioles (leaf stalks) up to 15 feet long
- Forms dense populations with overlapping leaves that
- crowd or shade out submersed plants
- restrict water flow
- Multiple reproduction methods via tubers, daughter plants, rhizomes, and fragmentation
- contribute to rapid spread and invasiveness
- fragments easily spread by boat traffic or water movement
- persistent roots, rhizomes and leaf fragments make control extremely difficult
- leaf fragment can form adventitious roots and start a new plant
- Thick cuticle makes chemical control via surface spray difficult
Management Options
- Biological: None available. Triploid grass carp will not control
- Chemical: Potassium & Amine Endothall, Glyphosate
- Mechanical: Harvest mats – leaf fragments likely start new infestations
- Physical: Hand pulling, especially new / small infestations. Drawdowns and drying / freezing not effective