Agriculture Business Week

Once considered a nuisance, the once lowly water lily is creating ripples in the agribusiness word because of its various economics possibilities.

It is a free-floating perennial aquatic plant native to tropical South America. With broad, thick, glossy, ovate leaves, it may rise above the surface of the water as much as one meter in height. The leaves are 10-20 centimeters across, and float above the water surface. It has long, spongy and bulbous stalks. The feathery, freely hanging roots are purple-black. An erect stalk supports a single spike of 8-15 conspicuously attractive flowers, mostly lavender to pink in color with six petals.

Experts call it water hyacinth but to most Filipinos it is known as “water lily.” Water hyacinth (scientific name: Eichornia crassipes) is considered the most productive plant on earth as it yields more than 200 tons of dry matter per hectare per year under normal conditions. On water containing high concentrations of sewage, it yields up to 657 tons of dry matter per hectare.

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