Hydrilla Video
- Submersed, “obligate” (requiring a wet habitat)
- Forming dense stands of very long stems (25 ft.) in the water
- Reproduces mainly by regrowth of stem fragments; also reproduces by growth of axillary buds (turions) and subterranean tubers; tubers can remain viable for more than 4 years a single tuber can grow to produce more than 6,000 new tubers per m2
Habitat
- Hydrilla can grow in almost any freshwater: springs, lakes, marshes, ditches, rivers, tidal zones
- Can grow in only a few inches of water, or in water more than 20 feet deep
- Can grow in oligotrophic (low nutrient) to eutrophic (high nutrient) conditions
- Can grow in 7% salinity of seawater
- Temperature tolerance: hydrilla is somewhat winter-hardy; its optimum growth temperature, 68-81o F; its maximum temperature, 86o F
- Can grow in only 1% of full sunlight
- Low light compensation and saturation points and low CO2 compensation point make it a competitive plant because it can start growing in low light before other plants do
