Water lettuce:
El Salvador’s Lake Suchitlan is overwhelmed by invasive water lettuce which is impacting thousands of families dependent on fishing and tourism.
- Water lettuce is a perennial, free-floating aquatic weed found in tropical countries worldwide, including Asia, Africa and equatorial America.
- It is also known as water cabbage, Nile cabbage, or shellflower.
- It is a floating aquatic herb that resembles a floating head of lettuce. It has white to tan, long and feathery roots that hang beneath the rosette of leaves.
- It grows best on still or slow moving bodies of fresh water such as farm dams, reservoirs, lakes, rivers and creeks.
- It forms dense mats that clog waterways making boating, fishing, and other water activities impossible.
- These mats also degrade water quality by blocking the air-water interface and greatly reducing oxygen levels which can result in fish die-off and the overall reduction of aquatic fauna and flora diversity
- It affects water flow, damages native ecosystems.
