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Aquatic plant
 
 
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Aquatic plants — also called hydrophytic plants or hydrophytes — are plants that have adapted to living in or on aquatic environments. Because living on or under water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 surface requires numerous special adaptations, aquatic plants can only grow in water or permanently saturated soil
Soil

Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth's surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion....
.






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Nymphaea Alba
Aquatic plants — also called hydrophytic plants or hydrophytes — are plants that have adapted to living in or on aquatic environments. Because living on or under water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 surface requires numerous special adaptations, aquatic plants can only grow in water or permanently saturated soil
Soil

Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth's surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion....
. Aquatic vascular plant
Vascular plant

Vascular plants are those plants that have lignin tissue for conducting water, minerals, and photosynthetic products through the plant. Vascular plants include the ferns, clubmosses, flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms....
s can be fern
Fern

A fern is any one of a group of about 20,000 species of plants classified in the phylum or division Pteridophyta, also known as Filicophyta....
s or angiosperms (from a variety of families, including among the monocots and dicots). Seaweed
Seaweed

Seaweed is a loose colloquial term encompassing macroscopic, multicellular, benthos ocean algae. The term includes some members of the rhodophyta, phycophyta and green algae....
s are not vascular plants but multicellular marine
Ocean

An ocean is a major body of Seawater, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a World Ocean that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas....
 algae
Algae

Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms. The largest and most complex marine forms are called seaweeds....
, and therefore not typically included in the category of aquatic plants. As opposed to plants types such as mesophytes and xerophytes, hydrophytes do not have a problem in retaining water due to the abundance of water in its environment. This means the plant has less need to regulate transpiration
Transpiration

Transpiration is the evaporation of water from the aerial parts of plants, especially leaf but also Plant stems, flowers and roots. Leaf surfaces are dotted with openings called stoma that are bordered by guard cells....
 (indeed, the regulation of transpiration would require more energy than the possible benefits incurred).

Characteristics of hydrophytes:
  1. A thin cuticle
    Plant cuticle

    Plant cuticles are a protective waxy covering produced only by the Epidermis of leaf, young shoots and all other aerial plant organs without periderm....
    . Cuticles primarily prevent water loss, thus most hydrophytes have no need for cuticles.
  2. Stomata that are open most of time because water is abundant and therefore there is no need for it to be retained in the plant. This means that guard cells on the stomata are generally inactive.
  3. An increased number of stomata, that can be on either side of leaves.
  4. A less rigid structure: water pressure supports them.
  5. Flat leaves
    Leaf

    In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
     on surface plants for flotation.
  6. Air sacs for flotation.
  7. Smaller root
    Root

    In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant body that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial root or aerating ....
    s: water can diffuse
    Diffusion

    Molecular diffusion, often called simply diffusion, is a net transport of molecules from a region of higher concentration to one of lower concentration by random molecular motion....
     directly into leaves.
  8. Feathery roots: no need to support the plant.
  9. Specialized roots able to take in oxygen.


For example, some species of buttercup (genus Ranunculus
Ranunculus

Ranunculus is a large genus of about 400 species of plants in the Ranunculaceae. It includes the buttercups, spearworts, water crowfoots and the lesser celandine ....
) float slightly submerged in water; only the flowers extend above the water. Their leaves and roots are long and thin and almost hair-like; this helps spread the mass
Mass

In physical science, mass refers to the degree of acceleration a body acquires when subject to a force: bodies with greater mass are accelerated less by the same force....
 of the plant over a wide area, making it more buoyant
Buoyancy

In physics, buoyancy is the upward force that keeps things afloat. The net upward buoyancy force is equal to the magnitude of the weight of fluid displaced by the body....
. Long roots and thin leaves also provide a greater surface area for uptake of mineral
Mineral

A mineral is a naturally occurring solid formed through Geology processes that has a characteristic chemical composition, a highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties....
 solutes and oxygen.

Wide flat leaves in water lilies (family Nymphaeaceae
Nymphaeaceae

Nymphaeaceae is a name for a family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called water lilies and live in freshwater areas in temperate and Tropics around the world....
) help distribute weight over a large area, thus helping them float near surface.

Many fish keepers keep aquatic plants in their tanks to control phytoplankton
Phytoplankton

Phytoplankton are the autotrophic component of the plankton community. The name comes from the Greek language words phyton, or "plant", and p?a??t?? , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter"....
 and moss
Moss

Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1?10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations....
 by removing metabolites.

Many species of aquatic plant are invasive species
Invasive species

Invasive species is a phrase with several definitions. The first definition expresses the phrase in terms of non-indigenous species that adversely affect the habitats they invade economically, environmentally or ecologically....
 in different parts of the world. Aquatic plants make particularly good weed
WEED

WEED is a radio station broadcasting a Gospel format. Licensed to Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USA, it serves the area. The station is currently owned by Northstar Broadcasting Corporation....
s because they reproduce vegetatively
Vegetative reproduction

Vegetative reproduction is a type of asexual reproduction for plants, and is also called vegetative propagation, vegetative multiplication, or vegetative cloning....
 from fragments.

Adaptations

  • Free plants: In a pond community, they receive more sunlight than submerged plants. They also have to compete with one another for sunlight
  • Submerged plants: Submerged leaves receive low levels of sunlight because light energy diminishes while passing through a water column.All floating plants
  • Have either air spaces trapped in their roots or large air spaces (aerenchyma
    Aerenchyma

    Aerenchyma is an airy tissue found in roots of plants, which allows exchange of gases between the shoot and the root. It contains large air-filled cavities, which provide a low-resistance internal pathway for the exchange of gases such as oxygen and ethylene between the plant parts above the water and the submerged tissues....
    ) to help them float to obtain sunlight
  • Have hair on their leaves to trap air
  • Structural adaptationDuckweed, water cabbage
  • Chloroplast found on the top surface of the leaves
  • Upper Surface has a thick, waxy cuticle to repel water and help to keep the stomata open and clear
  • Structural adaptationWater lily
    Water lily

    The phrase water lily is used to describe aquatic plants of the following families:* Nymphaeaceae* Nelumbonaceae, also called lotus.Other uses:...
  • Structural material to reach higher points and receive more sunlight
  • Structural adaptationFloating heart, water lily
    Water lily

    The phrase water lily is used to describe aquatic plants of the following families:* Nymphaeaceae* Nelumbonaceae, also called lotus.Other uses:...
    , yellow pond lily, water-shield
    Water-shield

    Water-shield may refer to following aquatic plants:* Brasenia * Cabombaceae ...
  • Leaves tend to be broader without major lobbing, remain flat on water surface, maximize surface area and make use of full sunlight, chloroplasts found on the top of leaves
  • Structural/ behavioral adaptationMost partially-submerged plants
  • Air spaces within the tissues to keep it buoyant so that its leaves can reach the top of the pond, maximizing the amount of sunlight received
  • Structural adaptationDissected: Parrot's Feather, Hornwort
    Hornwort

    Hornworts are a group of bryophytes, or non-vascular plants, comprising the division Anthocerotophyta. The common name refers to the elongated horn-like structure, which is the sporophyte....
Thread-like: ditch-grass, quillwort
Quillwort

Iso?tes, also written Isoetes and commonly known as the Quillworts, is the genus of plants in the class Isoetopsida and order Isoetales....
  • Highly dissected/ divided leaves or thread-like ones, Allows for a bigger surface area (surface to volume – S/V)
  • Structural adaptationHydrilla
    Hydrilla

    Hydrilla is an aquatic plant genus, usually treated as containing just one species, Hydrilla verticillata, though some botanists divide it into several species....
  • Elongates rapidly to reach water surface and branches out at water surface, more light can be obtained at water surface
  • Structural/ behavioral adaptation


Human nutrition


Many aquatic plants are, or have been, used by humans as a food source. Note that especially in (South-east) Asia edible but uncooked hydrophytes are implicated in the transmission of fasciolopsiasis
Fasciolopsiasis

Fasciolopsiasis results from infection by the trematode Fasciolopsis buski Odhner, 1902, the largest intestinal Trematoda of humans ....
. See also Fasciola hepatica
Fasciola hepatica

Fasciola hepatica, also known as the common liver fluke or sheep liver fluke, is a parasitism flatworm of the class Trematoda, phylum Platyhelminthes that infects liver of various mammals, including humans....
.

  • Wild rice
    Wild rice

    Wild rice is any of the four species of plants that make up the genus Zizania , a group of Poaceae that grow in shallow water in small lakes and slow-flowing streams; often, only the flowering head of wild rice rises above the water....
     (Zizania
    Zizania

    Zizania may refer to:*Zizania, a wild rice native to North America*USS Zizania , a patrol craft tender which served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1919....
    )
  • Water caltrop
    Water caltrop

    The water caltrop or water chestnut is either of two species of the genus Trapa: Trapa natans and Trapa bicornis. Both species are floating annual plant aquatic plants, growing in slow-moving water up to 5 meters deep, native to warm temperate parts of Eurasia and Africa....
     (Trapa natans)
  • Chinese water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis
    Eleocharis dulcis

    The Chinese water chestnut , more often called simply the water chestnut, is a grass-like Cyperaceae grown for its edible corms. It has tube-shaped, leafless green stems that grow to about 1.5 metres....
    )
  • Indian Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera
    Nelumbo nucifera

    Nelumbo nucifera, known by a number of names including Indian lotus, sacred lotus, bean of India, or simply lotus. Botanically, Nelumbo nucifera may also be referred to by its Synonym , Nelumbium speciosum or Nymphaea nelumbo. This plant is an aquatic perennial....
    )
  • Water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica
    Ipomoea aquatica

    Ipomoea aquatica is a semi-aquatic plant tropical plant grown as a leaf vegetable. Its precise natural distribution is unknown due to extensive cultivation, with the species found throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world....
    )
  • Watercress
    Watercress

    Watercresses are fast-growing, aquatic or semi-aquatic, perennial plants native from Europe to central Asia, and one of the oldest known leaf vegetables consumed by human beings....
     (Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum)
  • Watermimose, Water mimosa ? (Neptunia natans)
  • Taro
    Taro

    Taro , more rarely kalo , gabi in The Philippines and dalo in Fiji is a tropical plant grown primarily as a root vegetable for its edible corm, and secondarily as a leaf vegetable....
     (Colocasia esculenta
    Colocasia esculenta

    Colocasia esculenta is a tropical plant grown primarily for its edible corm, a root vegetable known as Taro. It is believed to be one of the earliest cultivated plants....
    )
  • Rice
    Rice

    Rice is a staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in tropical Latin America, and East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, making it the second-most consumed cereal grain, after maize....
     (Oryza
    Oryza

    Oryza is a genus of 7-20 species of Poaceae in the tribe Oryzeae, within the subfamily Bambusoideae. native to tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and Africa....
    ) is originally not an aquatic plant.
  • Bullrush, Cattail, (Typha
    Typha

    Typha is a genus of about eleven species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the monogeneric family, Typhaceae. The genus has a largely Northern Hemisphere distribution, but is essentially cosmopolitan distribution, being found in a variety of wetland habitats....
    )
  • Water-pepper
    Water-pepper

    Water-pepper or Water pepper is a plant of the family Polygonaceae. It grows in damp places and shallow water; a native of the temperate zones of the Northern hemisphere....
     (Polygonum hydropiper)
  • Wasabi
    Wasabi

    Wasabi is a member of the Brassicaceae family, which includes cabbages, horseradish and Mustard plant. Known as "Japanese horseradish", its root is used as a spice and has an extremely strong flavour....
     (Wasabia japonica)
  • kjosco? see also Fascioliasis
    Fascioliasis

    Fasciolosis is an important helminth disease caused by two trematodes Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica. This disease belongs to the plant-borne trematode zoonosis....
  • Totora
    Totora (plant)

    Totora is a subspecies of the Schoenoplectus californicus. It is found in South America - notably on Lake Titicaca - and on Easter island in the Pacific Ocean....
     (Scirpus californicus)?


Animal nutrition


Some examples of aquatic plants

  • Water hyacinth
    Water hyacinth

    The seven species of water hyacinth comprise the genus Eichhornia. Water hyacinth is a free-floating perennial aquatic plant native to tropical South America....
     (Eichhornia)
  • Duckweed: Lemna
    Lemna

    Lemna is a genus of free-floating aquatic plants from the duckweed family. These rapidly-growing plants have found uses as a model system for studies in basic plant biology, in ecotoxicology, in production of biopharmaceuticals, and as a source of animal feeds for agriculture and aquaculture....
    , Spirodela
    Spirodela

    Spirodela is a genus of aquatic plant, commonly called duckweed. Spirodela species are members of the Araceae under the APG II system. They were formerly members of the Lemnaceae....
     and Wolffia
    Wolffia

    Wolffia is a genus of 9 to 11 species which include the smallest flowering plants on Earth. Commonly called watermeal, these aquatic plants resemble specks of cornmeal floating on the water....
  • Trichanthera gigantea


Some examples of aquatic plants

  • Utricularia (from Latin, utriculus, a little bag or bottle) is a genus of slender aquatic plants, the leaves of which are furnished with floating bladders. They are called bladderwort
    Bladderwort

    Bladderwort is the common name given to the plants of the genus Utricularia. The largest genus of carnivorous plants, it consists of some 215 species which occur in fresh water and wet soil across every continent except Antarctica....
    s.
  • Water lettuce


Source

  • Cook, C.D.K. (ed). 1974. Water Plants of the World. Dr W Junk Publishers, The Hague. ISBN 90-6193-024-3


See also

  • Bog
    Bog

    A bog or mire is a wetland type that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—usually mosses, but also lichens in Arctic climates....
  • Helophyte
    Helophyte

    A helophyte or limnodophyte is the Phytosociology definition of a biennial plant or herbaceous plant plant of which only the buds survive a harsh period, such as winter, e.g....
  • List of freshwater aquarium plant species
    List of freshwater aquarium plant species

    Aquatic plants are used to give the aquarium a natural appearance, oxygenate the water, and provide Habitat for fish, especially fry and for invertebrate species....
  • Marsh
    Marsh

    In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland which is subject to frequent or continuous flood . Typically the water is shallow and features Poaceaees, Juncaceaees, Phragmites, typhas, Cyperaless, and other herbaceous plants....
  • Commercial production of aquatic plants
    Fishing by country

    Following are sortable tables of the world fisheries production for 2005. The tonnage from capture and aquaculture is listed by country....
 
  • Paddy field
    Paddy field

    A paddy field is a flooded parcel of arable land used for growing rice and other Aquatic plant. Rice can also be grown in dry-fields, but from the twentieth century paddy field agriculture became the dominant form of growing rice....
  • Salt marsh
  • Sea grass
  • Swamp
    Swamp

    A swamp is a wetland featuring temporary or permanent inundation of large areas of land, by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a substantial number of hammock , or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation....
  • Aquascaping
    Aquascaping

    Aquascaping is an art form practiced by aquarium enthusiasts that entails arranging aquatic plants, as well as rocks, stones, cavework, or driftwood in an aesthetically pleasing manner within an aquarium....


    • External links


    • Information on controlling algae