Flowers

• Flowers are the often-colorful, blooming portion of a plant's reproductive system. They are common to species found in the Angiospermae division of the plant kingdom. Flowers do not compose the entirety, or often even the majority, of a plant as a whole.
  
  

Water Hyacinths

• Water hyacinths come from the Amazon basin but are now found worldwide. They are grown primarily in water, and their colorful flowers make them a popular addition to water gardens the world over. Although commonly found in fresh water, where they float on the surface, they can also survive when grown in mud.
  
  

Features

• Water hyacinth flowers are small, approximately 2-1/2 inches across, and look a lot like the flowers of the lily. The flowers are light purple around the outsides, becoming deeper purple in the middle, where a yellow, almost diamond-shaped dot can be found. The flowers grow in clusters of between six and 10, centered around the leaves of the hyacinth.
  
  

The Facts

• The water hyacinth itself is not a flower but a plant. Although the water hyacinth does grow flowers as part of its reproductive cycle, this is only one part of the plant. In the same way that a rose bush produces roses but is itself not a rose, the water hyacinth cannot truly be called a flower.