Chapter 16
Fantastic Floating Weeds and How to Use
Them
Payal Mazumder, Jyoti, Ajay S. Kalamdhad, and Meena Khwairakpam
16.1 Introduction
Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) had originated in Brazil, Latin America, and
is a common floating weed with purple flowers. It spreads in lakes, ponds, rivers,
and paddy fields in many parts of the world and is commonly known as the greatest
irksome freshwater weed (Holmes et al. 1997). It is known to be a floating or surface
aquatic weed and is considered as one of the most obnoxious weeds. The growth of
the water hyacinth plant as an ornamental plant around the world is because of its
beautiful flowers. Wherever it has found favorable environmental ambience, it grows
with prodigious swiftness to form huge single stranded branches from a common
submerged root. As a result, it is detrimental to biodiversity and human ventures (e.g.,
navigation, fishing, boating, etc.) (https://www.cabi.org/) due to its resistance to all
the efforts of destroying it by several methods such as physical, chemical, biological,
and/or combination of methods (Rai 2009; Chauhan and Joshi 2010). It is difficult to
eradicate, and often only an integrated management strategy, inclusive of biological
control, can provide a long-term solution to this pest.
Intrusive aquatic weed control is considered as one of the difficult and enormous
tasks in the area of solid waste management. Composting, as a solution for weed
management, is one of the beneficial methods for the conversion of organic solid
P. Mazumder (B)
Centre for the Environment, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039, India
e-mail: payal93@iitg.ac.in; payal.spinnersend@gmail.com
Jyoti · M. Khwairakpam
Centre for Rural Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039, India
A. S. Kalamdhad
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039,
India
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
M. Kumar et al. (eds.), Contaminants in Drinking and Wastewater Sources,
Springer Transactions in Civil and Environmental Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4599-3_16
367
Fantastic Floating Weeds and How to Use
Them
Payal Mazumder, Jyoti, Ajay S. Kalamdhad, and Meena Khwairakpam
16.1 Introduction
Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) had originated in Brazil, Latin America, and
is a common floating weed with purple flowers. It spreads in lakes, ponds, rivers,
and paddy fields in many parts of the world and is commonly known as the greatest
irksome freshwater weed (Holmes et al. 1997). It is known to be a floating or surface
aquatic weed and is considered as one of the most obnoxious weeds. The growth of
the water hyacinth plant as an ornamental plant around the world is because of its
beautiful flowers. Wherever it has found favorable environmental ambience, it grows
with prodigious swiftness to form huge single stranded branches from a common
submerged root. As a result, it is detrimental to biodiversity and human ventures (e.g.,
navigation, fishing, boating, etc.) (https://www.cabi.org/) due to its resistance to all
the efforts of destroying it by several methods such as physical, chemical, biological,
and/or combination of methods (Rai 2009; Chauhan and Joshi 2010). It is difficult to
eradicate, and often only an integrated management strategy, inclusive of biological
control, can provide a long-term solution to this pest.
Intrusive aquatic weed control is considered as one of the difficult and enormous
tasks in the area of solid waste management. Composting, as a solution for weed
management, is one of the beneficial methods for the conversion of organic solid
P. Mazumder (B)
Centre for the Environment, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039, India
e-mail: payal93@iitg.ac.in; payal.spinnersend@gmail.com
Jyoti · M. Khwairakpam
Centre for Rural Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039, India
A. S. Kalamdhad
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039,
India
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
M. Kumar et al. (eds.), Contaminants in Drinking and Wastewater Sources,
Springer Transactions in Civil and Environmental Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4599-3_16
367