Water Hyacinth - The Flower of Kindness Blooming on Water

Are you familiar with water hyacinth? You might encounter water hyacinth quite often in small ponds or lakes. The flower language of water hyacinth is **“Favor”**.

Water hyacinth is a perennial herb native to tropical and subtropical America, and it's a plant that grows in small ponds or lakes. Since it floats on the water's surface, it belongs to the Pontederiaceae family. It floats on the water and survives by absorbing nutrients through its roots. Its petioles contain air, allowing it to float on water. Therefore, it's also called Water Hyacinth in English.

Water hyacinth got its name by combining the Korean word for the air bladder in a fish's body, 'burae' (부레), with the Sino-Korean word 'okjam' (옥잠). 'Okjam' (玉簪) means jade hairpin in Chinese. Isn't it a fitting name for the flower?

Water hyacinth blooms in July and August and has the characteristic of wilting within a day. Despite being an aquatic plant, it adapts well and grows in places with soil. Moreover, it has a remarkable reproductive ability. Due to this, it has gained notoriety as a weed that negatively impacts aquatic ecosystems. When water hyacinth proliferates, it blocks sunlight from reaching beneath the water's surface, hindering photosynthesis in submerged plants and microorganisms. This leads to a sharp decrease in dissolved oxygen levels, potentially causing the aquatic ecosystem to collapse due to oxygen deficiency.

However, in Korea, there are methods to control water hyacinth, preventing it from becoming a major issue. Still, due to its prolific reproductive capacity, neglecting it can lead to problems, so continuous management and control are necessary.

The exceptional reproductive capacity of water hyacinth might seem contradictory to its flower language of 'favor', wouldn't you agree? True to its flower language, it rapidly grows and increases its population, but ironically, this very characteristic prevents other organisms from having a place to live. Thus, through the plant water hyacinth, we should remember that favor might be only for ourselves, and the scope of favor is also something we should always consider.

I hope this article was helpful. Thank you!