# Water hyacinth seeds



## sb483 (May 29, 2006)

Just wanted to share photos of water hyacinth seeds:









and one that sprouted:









Don't know if it'll survive, but it looks healthy. Water hyacinths don't live for very long in my 55-gallon (probably not enough light, not warm enough, not enough nutrients like iron, etc.), but maybe at this size it'll stay around for a while - perhaps even until spring, when I can put it outside. [Even though it disintegrated after a few weeks, the large water hyacinth I put into the 55 did successfully eliminate green water algae, and in only a few days. If this one survives I'll keep it just in case green water comes back.]
I wasn't familiar with water hyacinths reproducing from seeds as opposed to runners, so I thought it was interesting.


----------



## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

That is interesting... Thanks for sharing!


----------



## wiste (Feb 10, 2006)

Where did the seed come from? Was it left after removing a larger hyacinth plant?


----------



## sb483 (May 29, 2006)

wiste said:


> Where did the seed come from? Was it left after removing a larger hyacinth plant?


It came from the small pond I have in the backyard. I put a hyacinth plant in there when it was warm, it multiplied, and at the first frost they all shriveled up. Then one day I wanted to try breeding neon tetras - the water in the pond has almost no hardness, so I took water from there to fill a neon breeding tank. As I was filling the water I saw large seeds floating in.

(ps the neons never bred because i put soil in the neon breeding tank; the water tested hard after a while, so the soil must have released Ca & other hardwater nutrients into the water)


----------



## Planter23 (Jan 12, 2007)

Do you know if somewhere the seeds of hyacinth plant are selling,or seeds from any other plant?


----------



## sb483 (May 29, 2006)

In response to the question above, when I searched water hyacinth seeds, I saw someone selling Water Hyacinth Beans on eBay :flock: but water hyacinths reproduce by plantlets so readily that you might get the plant for much cheaper.

And here it is, at a slightly larger size, surrounded by other magic beans that have also started to sprout (see the roots of another one on the left):


----------

