EFFECTS OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION ON THE PROLIFERATION OF EICHHORNIA CRASSIPES IN LAKE GERIYO ADAMAWA NIGERIA

Eichhornia crassipes an attractive, floating waterweed with a fibrous root system and dark green rounded leaves and light purple flowers reproduces sexually through the production of vast quantities of seeds. The plant grows so quickly that the surface covered by the mats doubles every 4-5 days producing 33,000 tons fresh weight per hectare annually. As one of the most productive plants on earth, a mat of medium sized plants contains 2 million plants with each individual plant producing at least 140 million others. This investigation attempts to find out the effects of sexual reproduction on the proliferation of Eichhornia crassipes in Lake Geriyo Adamawa Nigeria. Pollen formation and germinability of Eichhornia crassipes being one of the fastest growing plant revealed that 100% of its pollens harvested from the Lake were morphologically deformed. Out of the 1500 pollens scored, 25 (1.67%) showed very slow pollen tube development within 12 hrs. The pollen protoplast in both germinated and non-germinating grains showed signs of collapsing cytoplasm and at the end of the 24 hrs, the protoplasts of 75% of those that germinated and 50% of those that did not germinate disintegrated. Thirty five percent (35%) of the pollen grains showed knobby protuberances only on the grain surface which did not develop further into a pollen tube. Eichhornia crassipes which was found to be sexually sterile revealed the formation of phragmoplast at anaphase a rare occurrence and that sexual reproduction has no effect on the proliferation of Eichhornia crassipes in Lake Geriyo Adamawa Nigeria, therefore the need for further research to find out the reasons for the rapid prolific reproduction of the plant in order to control it.