Florida embraced water hyacinth for its purple flowers in the 1880s; after spreading past 120,000 acres, it was cut it to about 2,000 acres statewide
Some plants look too pretty to cause trouble. Water hyacinth is a good example. The floating plant was introduced to Florida in the 1880s, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. By the early 1960s, it spanned more than 120,000 acres of public lakes and navigable rivers. That’s a lot of water going … Read more