Hygrophila polysperma is a wetland plant that can occur as a submerged or an emersed plant. It inhabits lakes, streams, marshy areas, ditches, and rice-fields (de Thabrew 2014). This species can grow in water at depths up to 3 m and on stream banks as an emersed plant (Nault and Mikulyuk 2009). Hygrophila polysperma can inhabit habitats with a variety of environmental conditions. It favors warmer waters of 18-30°C but can tolerate water temperatures as low as 4°C (Kasselmann 1995, Ramey 2001, Rixon et al. 2005, US EPA 2008). It grows in waters with pH of 6.5-7.8 (Spencer and Bowes 1985, Doyle et al. 2003) and water hardness of 30-140 ppm (Nault and Mikulyuk 2009). This species has low light saturation and compensation points, so it is capable of photosynthesizing in low light levels (Doyle et al. 2003). Hygrophila polysperma exhibits low seasonality and can maintain shoot biomass year round (Spencer and Bowes 1985). Growth rate is dependent on water temperature and daylight (Nault and Mikulyuk 2009), and can increase dramatically in the presence of nutrient inputs (Sutton and Dingler 2000). This species can draw CO2 from both the water and atmosphere (Doyle et al. 2003).
Supplier of plants:
oxygenators, reeds, iris, water lilies, bog gardens,
wildlife ponds, natural ponds, lakes, floating plants,
deep water plants, marginals, native british and tropical.
