Morphological Characteristics of Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) and Duckweed (Lemna minor) in different conditions of municipal wastewater in the Central Rainforest, Peru

Abstract

Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth) and Lemna minor (duckweed) are aquatic 
macrophyte plants native to the Central Rainforest with a remarkable capacity for 
adaptability to areas with high nutrient content, which gives them considerable 
phytoremediation potential. This study evaluated the tolerance of both plants to 
different conditions of municipal wastewater (MWW) discharged into the Garou River 
in the city of Chanchamayo. For this, verification of the morphology of the plants was 
carried out. For this purpose, five different treatments were implemented: T1 (water 
hyacinth + clean water), T2 (water hyacinth + wastewater), T3 (duckweed + clean 
water), T4 (duckweed + wastewater) and T5 (control or control group) for a period of 
20 days. The results showed that treatment T2 presented a significant variation and 
better performance in terms of pH (p > 0.0001104) and height (p > 0.001072). It is 
concluded that water hyacinth is more efficient in its adaptability to extreme 
wastewater conditions