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A "floating island" of L. laevigatum, and the grass Vossia cuspidata, in the mainstream of the Zambezi River, Zambia. Photo GH.
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Limnobium laevigatum (Hydrocharitaceae) is a freshwater plant indigenous to Central and South America, which has become naturalized and invasive in parts of North America, Asia and Australia and has been detected in Southern Africa. Populations have been found in Zimbabwe and Zambia over the last eleven years and we warn of its likely spread to oth...
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... both of which regularly form floating islands in lakes and rivers in Africa. An example of such a "floating island" of L. laevigatum and V. cuspidata, found on the Zambian side of the middle Zambezi, is illustrated in Figure 5. This phenomenon has been noted for water hyacinth and the other species of Limnobium (L. ...
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... Heine, Amazon frogbit, is listed as a Prohibited Matter Weed in New South Wales (NSW) [20]. Native to Central and South America [21,22], this species has been widely introduced beyond its native range. Limnobium laevigatum is recognised as a noxious weed in numerous countries, including Australia, Indonesia, Japan, USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe. ...
Environmental DNA (eDNA) is widely used for detecting target species, including monitoring endangered species and detecting the presence of invasive species. Detecting targeted species using the eDNA approach is typically carried out with species-specific qPCR assays. Amazon frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum) is classified as a State-Prohibited Matter Weed in NSW, Australia. It is a fast-growing perennial aquatic weed that outcompetes native aquatic plants, leading to a reduction in the habitats of aquatic animals. Early detection is crucial for the effective management of this species. In this study, we developed a qPCR assay for L. laevigatum based on the rpoB gene sequence. This assay was validated against 25 non-target aquatic and terrestrial species. It was found to be species-specific, with the positive signal exclusively detected in L. laevigatum. The assay was highly sensitive with the modelled detection limits of 3.66 copies of DNA/µL. Furthermore, our assay was validated using environmental samples collected from field sites with and without the presence of L. laevigatum. Our assay is an effective tool for targeted eDNA detection of L. laevigatum, which will enhance efforts to monitor and control this invasive aquatic weed.
... In Africa, these aquatic weeds have negatively affected the activities and functioning of freshwater bodies like the Nile River, Lake Victoria, and many others Nega et al., 2022). In Zambia, water hyacinth and hippo grass have invaded most of the water bodies among them the Zambezi, the Kafue, the Kafubu, the Chongwe, and the Maramba Rivers (Howard et al., 2016;Mbula, 2016;Nang'alelwa, 2008;Winton et al., 2020). Despite implementing various mechanical, chemical, and biological measures, eradicating aquatic weeds has proven to be extremely difficult (Nang'alelwa, 2008;Ilo et al., 2020). ...
... This suggests that dispersal limitation is an important factor in shaping the geographical pattern of this plant [34,35]. H. laevigata showed a very broad potential distribution spanning much of the Americas as well as parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, and Australia, which is consistent with the documented invasion risk of H. levigata in the past [36,37], reflecting its ability to naturalize widely beyond its native subtropical-tropical American range [38]. ...
Climate change is a crucial factor impacting the geographical distribution of plants and potentially increases the risk of invasion for certain species, especially for aquatic plants dispersed by water flow. Here, we combined six algorithms provided by the biomod2 platform to predict the changes in global climate-suitable areas for five species of Hydrocharis (Hydrocharitaceae) (H. chevalieri, H. dubia, H. laevigata, H. morsus-ranae, and H. spongia) under two current and future carbon emission scenarios. Our results show that H. dubia, H. morsus-ranae, and H. laevigata had a wide range of suitable areas and a high risk of invasion, while H. chevalieri and H. spongia had relatively narrow suitable areas. In the future climate scenario, the species of Hydrocharis may gain a wider habitat area, with Northern Hemisphere species showing a trend of migration to higher latitudes and the change in tropical species being more complex. The high-carbon-emission scenario led to greater changes in the habitat area of Hydrocharis. Therefore, we recommend strengthening the monitoring and reporting of high-risk species and taking effective measures to control the invasion of Hydrocharis species.
... Hydrocharis laevigata merupakan tumbuhan asing akuatik yang telah dibudidayakan sebagai tanaman hias di Jawa. Daerah persebaran alaminya terdapat di Amerika Tengah dan Amerika Selatan, namun telah diintroduksi ke pelbagai kawasan lainnya (Backer dan Bakhuizen van den Brink, 1968;Howard et al., 2016;Riezing, 2019;Pliszko dan Górecki, 2021). Jenis tersebut juga banyak dilaporkan telah menginvasi daerah sebaran barunya (Howard et al., 2016;Randall, 2017;Lozano dan Brundu, 2018). ...
... Daerah persebaran alaminya terdapat di Amerika Tengah dan Amerika Selatan, namun telah diintroduksi ke pelbagai kawasan lainnya (Backer dan Bakhuizen van den Brink, 1968;Howard et al., 2016;Riezing, 2019;Pliszko dan Górecki, 2021). Jenis tersebut juga banyak dilaporkan telah menginvasi daerah sebaran barunya (Howard et al., 2016;Randall, 2017;Lozano dan Brundu, 2018). Berdasarkan paparan tersebut maka penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengkaji H. laevigata secara botani, mulai dari ciri morfologi, taksonomi, pemanfaatan, ekologi, hingga potensinya menjadi tumbuhan invasif. ...
... Hydrocharis laevigata tersebar secara alami, mulai dari Meksiko, Argentina sebelah timur laut, hingga ke Venezuela dan Pulau Windward (Gambar 3) (Cook dan Urmi-Konig, 1983;Aona et al., 2017;POWO, 2023). Namun, upaya introduksi menyebabkan daerah persebaran jenis tumbuhan ini meluas hingga ke Zambia, Zimbabwe (Howard et al., 2016), Polandia (Pliszko dan Górecki, 2021), Jepang (Kadono, 2004), California (POWO, 2023), Spanyol (Martínez-Sagarra et al., 2021), Hungaria (Riezing, 2019), Australia (Randall, 2017;DAF, 2021), dan Indonesia (Akers, 2010). Perluasan daerah sebaran juga terjadi di kawasan aslinya, seperti yang dilaporkan oleh Muiño (2016) dari Provinsi La Pampa, Argentina. ...
Aktivitas manusia menyebabkan terjadinya perpindahan suatu jenis tumbuhan asing dari daerah sebaran aslinya ke daerah baru, misalnya melalui jalur perdagangan tanaman hias. Salah satu jenis tumbuhan asing akuatik yang diperdagangkan sebagai tanaman hias di Pulau Jawa yaitu Hydrocharis laevigata (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) Byng & Christenh. dari suku Hydrocharitaceae. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengkaji H. laevigata secara botani yang mencakup ciri morfologi, taksonomi,
pemanfaatan, ekologi, dan potensinya sebagai tumbuhan asing invasif. Metode yang digunakan dalam studi ini berupa studi literatur dengan menelaah berbagai referensi ilmiah. Hasil telaah menunjukkan bahwa H. laevigata berasal dari kawasan Amerika Tengah dan Selatan. Secara morfologi, jenis ini dicirikan oleh perawakan berupa terna melayang, bertangkai daun pendek, helaian daun membundar telur melebar
hingga membundar, aerenkim di bagian abaksial daun, bunga uniseksual, perhiasan bunga berwarna putih, benang sari berjumlah enam, tangkai sari saling berlekatan membentuk tabung, dan bunga betina tanpa daun mahkota bunga. Hydrocharis laevigata dimanfaatkan sebagai tanaman hias untuk akuarium dan kolam. Namun, keberadaannya di Pulau Jawa perlu diperhatikan. Hal tersebut karena jenis ini
dilaporkan telah menginvasi Australia dan Afrika.
... ex Willd.) Heine (Hydrocharitaceae) are emerging in southern African countries, including Zimbabwe (Sheppard et al., 2012;Howard et al., 2016). In addition, there is little information on submerged aquatic macrophytes, although Sheppard et al. (2012) noted the possibility of their presence and Hyde et al. (2022) reported Hydrilla verticillata L. (Hydrocharitaceae) in Northern Zambezi and there are unconfirmed reports of Egeria densa Planch (Hydrocharitaceae) being present but with no specific localities. ...
In Zimbabwe, the structure and integrity of various ecosystems is rapidly deteriorating, in part due to invasive alien plants. While there is recognition of the challenges posed by invasive alien plants and the complexity surrounding their successful management, very little has been done, documented or evaluated in the country recently, including classical weed biological control activities. We review the current status of invasive alien plants and classical weed biological control in Zimbabwe especially their management and legislation governing this management. We record the presence and distribution of weed biological control agents currently in Zimbabwe. The Biological Control Target Selection (BCTS) system was used to identify invasive plant species in Zimbabwe that could benefit from on-going or new classical biological control programmes. While biological control has been implemented in the country since the 1960s, and significant control has been achieved on floating aquatic macrophytes, no biological agent has been released on a terrestrial weed since 1961. However, 10 agents released in neighbouring South Africa have spread naturally into the country on contiguous plant populations and some are providing gratuitous control of some of the weeds. We identified 19 invasive alien plants that could be successfully managed through classical weed biological control, and for 12 of these, this could be achieved at minimal cost, as agents are available within the region. Zimbabwe, perhaps with the help of international aid organisations investing in the region, could: a) conduct extensive surveys of established biological control agents already present in the country; b) redistribute these agents into areas of the country where they are not already present and foster those spreading north in South Africa and likely to arrive eventually through natural spread, and; c) initiate new weed biological control programmes against new targets by importing new agents available from South Africa or Australia.
... As noted in [25,29,[33][34][35][36], H. laevigata has become naturalised and spread across ASIA: Japan, Taiwan, and Indonesia; AFRICA: Zambia and Zimbabwe; AUSTRALIA: New South Wales and Queensland; NORTH AMERICA: southern Canada as well as the north-eastern and western US; and EUROPE. ...
... While H. spongia (= Limnobium spongia) is rarely cultivated, H. laevigatum is commonly found in aquaria and garden ponds, largely because of its ecological breadth and pronounced reproductive capacity [32,[35][36][37]45]. ...
Hydrocharis laevigata (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) Byng & Christenh. [= Limnobium laevigatum (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) Heine], Hydrocharitaceae, is a floating-leaf aquatic plant that is native to inland South America. It is an invasive species in several parts of the world. Reports of its presence in Europe have been recently published: naturalised populations occur in three locations on the Iberian Peninsula. The literature also contains records of the species in Hungary and Poland. In addition, it has been observed in Sweden, Belgium, and the Netherlands. H. laevigata is highly adaptable and can profoundly transform habitat conditions in its invasive range, causing major issues for ecosystem conservation and human activities. Until recently, H. laevigata was not to be found in natural environments in Europe. Factors explaining its spread include its use as an ornamental plant, the eutrophication of inland waters, and the effects of global warming. With a focus on Europe, this short communication provides information on the species' distribution, taxonomy, biology, habitat, and negative impacts.
... Eichhornia crassipes, P. stratiotes, L. laevigatum and L. minor were the free-floating macrophytes collected in this study. Eichhornia crassipes, P. stratiotes and L. laevigatum were identified directly by using the morphological descriptions provided by Richards and Lee (1986), Bidarlord et al. (2019) and Howard et al. (2016), respectively. The species within the genera of these three species were not diverse and the morphological characteristics were distinct to other species within the same genera. ...
... The frond shape, frond symmetry, frond colour and root or rhizome structures or colour were described in the result of this study. For the descriptive characteristic comparison, the E. crassipes collected in this study were compared to the photograph taken by Das and Goswami (2015), as well as L. laevigatum compared to Howard et al. (2016), P. stratiotes compared to Chapman et al. (2017), C. aquatica compared to Silva and Leite (2011) and L. rotundifolia compared with the sample recorded by Wannan (2019). The rest of the sample collected in this study were not compared to other published literature because lack of specific photographs from their studies, but the related photographs can be compared easily with the open source from internet especially from the aquarium ornament plant dealers. ...
Freshwater macrophytes exist in varied life forms for example, emergent, submerged, floating-leaved and free-floating, and some of them have a heterophylly or multiple forms. The intraspecific variation in terms of morphology is common phenomena in macrophytes population; however, specific studies on morphology of freshwater macrophytes are still insufficient, especially in Pontian, Johor. Hence, this study aimed to characterise the freshwater macrophytes based on morphometrics and descriptive characteristics as well as to document their diversity and population. Thus, the morphometric measurements were done, the descriptive characteristics were documented in scientific photographs, the population of freshwater macrophytes was also estimated by using quadrat estimation technique. Additionally, the morphometrics of some collected samples were compared with the same sample in other studies to show the variation in the range of different measurements, the descriptive characteristics were also described as well as the population estimation assessed by area coverage was analysed in the form of statistical chart. The finding in this study showed variation in morphometric data and no intraspecific variation on phenotype of freshwater macrophytes in Pontian, Johor’s water.
... ex Willd.), Byng & Christenh., la cual presenta diferentes nombres comunes de acuerdo con su distribución geográfica, como "sponge plant" (CDPR c2013),"trébol de agua" (Ramírez y Cano 2011) y "amazon frogbit" (Howard et al. 2016); su propagación está asociada a su creciente empleo en la industria de especies ornamentales y de acuarios, lo que puede desencadenar un impacto negativo en aspectos económicos, sociales e incluso por pérdida de biodiversidad (Padilla y Williams 2004, Urrutia et al. 2017, Pérez y Seewald 2019. ...
... El primer registro de H. laevigata en África fue en el año 2005, pero es hasta el 2009 que se logró certificar su identificación; a lo largo de los años esta especie se ha establecido por lo menos en dos cuerpos de agua en Harare, Zimbabwe y en el río Zambezi. Esto demuestra que H. laevigata es una especie potencialmente invasora en aguas continentales fuera de su zona natural de distribución, por ello resulta necesario cartografiar y detectar la distribución actual de esta especie (Howard et al. 2016). ...
... Esta especie se puede ver en Norteamérica: México, en América Insular: Antigua y Barbuda, Cuba, República Dominicana, Guadalupe, Martinique, Montserrat, St. Lucía, Trinidad y Tobago, y Puerto Rico; en Centroamérica: Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica y Panamá; y en Sudamérica: Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana Francesa, Guyana, Surinam, Ecuador, Perú, Brasil, Paraguay, Uruguay y Argentina (BFG 2015, Lourenço y Bove 2017,USDA-ARS c2016). muchas investigaciones sobre la introducción de H. laevigata en países de varios continentes, siendo registrada como una especie potencialmente invasora en Estados Unidos, España, Australia, Reino Unido, Hungría, Rusia, Suecia, Bélgica, Indonesia, Japón, Taiwán, Zimbabwe, Perú, Chile y Zambia(Cook y Urmi-Konig 1983, Brako y Zarucchi 1993, San Martín y Boetscher 2003, Kadono 2004, Gaimari y O´Donnell 2009, Ramírez y Cano 2011, Howard et al. 2016, CABI 2019, Del Corro et al. 2019, GBIF c2020, Martínez-Sagarra et al. 2021. ...
Hydrocharis laevigata, una macrófita flotante perteneciente a la familia Hydrocharitaceae, es conocida por ser una especie invasora; su proliferación es causada con frecuencia por su uso como planta ornamental de estanques y acuarios, y por su alta plasticidad morfológica, rápido crecimiento y propagación que le han permitido colonizar ambientes naturales de varios continentes como Norteamérica, Sudamérica, Europa, África y parte de Oceanía. Se realiza una recopilación de la literatura sobre esta especie. Posee un alto contenido proteico (26-30 %) que permite considerarla para forraje de organismos acuáticos y, por su capacidad de bioacumular metales pesados en sus raíces, se considera también buen biorremediador. La efectividad de estas propiedades y propósitos permite un mayor entendimiento de la historia de vida de Hydrocharis laevigata, así como el planteamiento de mejores estrategias para su regulación en sus zonas de distribución.
... A relatively recent invader to California, it is native to Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean (USDA APHIS 2013). In addition to California, it has been introduced to southern Africa and Japan, apparently through use in the aquarium and water garden trades (Kadono 2004, Howard et al. 2016. A weed risk assessment has evaluated sponge plant as a high risk for both potential impact and potential to establish and spread in the United States (USDA APHIS 2013). ...
We examined the effect of water temperature on the growth of two free-floating aquatic species in this study: waterhyacinth [Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms] and sponge plant [Limnobium laevigatum (Humb. & Bonpl. Ex Willd.) Heine]. Waterhyacinth has been rated as the worst aquatic weed worldwide. A native of South and Central America, it is a recurring management issue in tropical and subtropical freshwater bodies in the United States. Sponge plant, native to southern Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, was first detected in California in 2003. We studied the growth of these two species with two 6-wk growth studies (for each species), at water temperatures of 15, 20, 25, and 30 C. All temperatures were replicated in four tanks, for a total of 16 tanks. Waterhyacinth biomass was over 2,000 g dry weight (DW) m À2 for plants grown at 25 and 30 C by 42 d after start (DAS). Waterhyacinth density reached almost 800 rosettes m À2 at 42 DAS at 25 and 30 C. Waterhyacinth relative growth rate (RGR) reached 0.099 d À1 , for a doubling time of 7.0 d. Sponge plant biomass at42 DAS was 400 g DW m À2 at 25 and 30 C. Density was as high as 3,900 rosettes m À2 at 42 DAS grown at 25 C. Sponge plant RGR was 0.12 d À1 at 25 C, for a doubling time of 5.7 d. The invasive potential of sponge plant has been demonstrated in this study.
... A. filiculoides and S. polyrhiza are used as biological fertilizers because of their ability to fix nitrogen (de Vries & de Vries, 2018), and increase rice yields. In contrast, L. laevigatum is a rice competitor in North America and Africa that is even more dangerous than water hyacinth and M. vaginalis (Cheng et al., 2010;Howard et al., 2016;Kadono, 2004). ...
Waterlily aphid Rhopalosiphum nymphaeae is one of the aphids that have many hosts, including Azolla filiculoides, Limnobium laevigatum, Monochoria vaginalis and Spirodela polyrhiza. The aim of this study was to study the effect of host shift and confirm the results of previous studies on the effect of nitrogen and carbon factors among A. filiculoides, L. laevigatum, M. vaginalis and S. polyrhiza on the level of aphid preference and number of offspring. Analysis of the nitrogen and carbon content of plants was also carried out to confirm the preference and number of offspring produced by aphids. The study began with maintaining aphids on the four tested hosts, up to the 4th generation. Twenty five individuals were randomly selected from each host, then released on the inner wall of the plastic container (14 ×7.5 × 15 cm 3) which was filled with four hosts arranged side by side. Observations were made every 24 hours up to 97 hours starting from the first hour after treatment. Observations after 97 hours showed that waterlily aphids adult preferred L. laevigatum the most (49.28%), then on M. vaginalis (20.43%), S. polyrhiza (16.33%), and A. filiculoides (1.75%). Meanwhile, the number of offspring produced by each group of aphids that selected on four hosts were: 46.65 individuals on L. laevigatum, 37.8 individuals on M. vaginalis, 19 individuals on S. polyrhiza, and 0.6 individuals on A. filiculoides. The analysis showed that the highest nitrogen content was found in M. vaginalis (4.16%), followed by S. polyrhiza (3.71%), L. laevigatum (2.33%), and A. filiculoides (2.08%).
