Water hyacinth, Lechuga de agua Aquatic, free-floating; stems short and condensed with many long roots at the base. Petioles 2-30 cm long, very inflated in short-petiolate leaves; blades +/- round, short-acuminate to rounded at apex, obtuse to truncate at base, 1-6 (8) cm long, lacking midvein. Spikes many-flowered, axillary, with a subensheathing spathe at base; perianth 6-parted, +/- funnelform, 4-6 cm long, lavender, the upper lobe darker at base and with a yellow spot at center, the tube 1-1.5 cm long, the lobes not erose; stamens 6, unequal, the shorter 3 slightly exserted, the longer 3 well exserted; filaments adnate to tube, glandular-pubescent; ovary ca 8 mm long, 3 mm wide, gradually tapered to apex; ovules minute; style elongate; stigma capitate, moplike. Capsules with seeds ca 1 mm long, ca 0.5 mm wide. Croat 7905. The species is heterostylous, though a single population may have only one type of style. Too few observations have been made of the Eichhornia around the lakeshore of BCI to ascertain if more than a single style type exists there. After the fruits have been floating for a day or so, water absorption causes them to split longitudinally from the pressure of the swelling mucilage (Parij a,1934).