| Water hyacinth | |
|---|---|
| |
| Common water hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Clade: | Commelinids |
| Order: | Commelinales |
| Family: | Pontederiaceae |
| Genus: | Eichhornia Kunth |
| Species | |
|
Four species (from Pellegrini et al. 2018):[1] | |
Eichhornia, commonly called water hyacinths, was a polyphyletic genus of the aquatic flowering plants family Pontederiaceae. Since it was consistently recovered in three independent lineages, it has been sunk into Pontederia, together with Monochoria. Each of the three lineages is currently recognized as subgenera in Pontederia:
- Pontederia subg. Cabanisia, which includes P. meyeri, P. paniculata (the Brazilian water hyacinth), and P. paradoxa
- Pontederia subg. Oshunae, which includes the common water hyacinth, P. crassipes
- Pontederia subg. Eichhornia, which includes P. azurea, P. diversifolia, P. heterosperma, and P. natans
Pontederia subg. Eichhornia is pantropical, centered in South America but with P. natans being endemic to continental Africa and Madagascar. The other three species are restricted to the Neotropics.
It was named in honour of Friedrich Eichhorn, an early-19th-century Prussian minister of education.[2]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Pellegrini-etal2018was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Umberto Quattrocchi (19 April 2016). CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants. CRC Press. p. 1524. ISBN 978-1-4822-5064-0.
Named after Johann Albrecht Friedrich Eichhorn, [...] a Prussian minister of education and public welfare, court advisor