Phyllanthus fluitans
Common Name: red root floater
Family: Phyllanthaceae
Common Synonyms: none
USDA Hardiness Zone: NA
Growth Habit: Floating Aquatic
Origin: Central and South America
FISC Category: -
FDACS Listed Noxious Weed: No
Introduction Date: Earliest Florida specimen vouchered in 2010.
IFAS Assessment:
Perennial aquatic herb with shoots floating on the water surface. Stems brittle, 1 to 1.5 mm in diameter, up to 13 cm long, with clusters of brown and pink roots at nodes. Leaves distichously arranged, 9 to 17 mm long, circular, densely papillate, entire, base cordate, tip notched, light blue-green in color. Leaf blade with peculiar elliptical pocket on each side of the midrib, proturberant above, concave below, with folds on the leaf surface. Flowers axillary, white, minute, 2-4 mm wide. Fruit a 3 mm wide, depressed globose capsule.
Canal, river.
Species sold as aquarium plant. Discovered in 2010 as naturalized in the Peace River drainage. Population herbicided to attempt extermination.
NA
IFAS, Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. 2013. Red root floater, Phyllanthus fluitans. http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/node/708. Accessed on December 9, 2013.
IFAS, Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. 2013. Weed Alert: Red root floater (Phyllanthus fluitans). http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/weedalert/invasiveplants_redrootfloater.pdf. Accessed on December 9, 2013.
