On 19/10/07 12:05, in article ,
"Steve Wolstenholme" wrote:

On Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:05:09 -0700, Dave Poole
wrote:

Ah the dreaded Eichornia crassipes! Fabulous flowers, but it's a
formidable and worrying pest in tropical regions. It has taken over
entire lakes in Africa where there are few predatory pests to keep it
in check.

A few years ago I was working with a programmer who lives in Uganda
close to Lake Victoria. She told me what happened to the lake near her
town. The water hyacinth grew all the way out to the horizon like a
huge flat green field. The fishermen could not reach their fishing
grounds. The last I heard about the problem was that a biological
control had been introduced but it had not reduced the plant growth
very much. I think the control was some sort of moth.

Steve

I see that the water lettuce is a notifiable weed in Australia!

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'