Aquatic Plants

There are more to aquatic plants than just floating on the surface of water. Aquatic plants are plants that can adapt and live in a freshwater environment. They are sometimes called hydrophytes. These include plants that live in fresh wetlands, swamps, ponds, lakes, and marshes. This type of plant actually serves two important functions. First, they help oxygenate water (2006) and they provide nutrients and food for some fishes (Tappin, 2003). There are many types of aquatic plants including rooted, emergent, submersed and free-floating. From the pretty water lily to the odd and small duckweed, these aquatic plants have adapted to their water-living environment as well as providing many benefits to the ecosystem and even us humans.

When you think of an aquatic plant, do you picture just any plant living in water? There are actually a few general types of aquatic plants. The four groups are emergent, free-floating, rooted floating-leaved and submersed. Emergent plants are rooted in soil and usually grown around the edges of a pond. Most of the leaves and stems are above the water surface. The free-floating plants float on the water or under the surface. An example is a plant called water hyacinth and a small floating plant called duckweed. Floating-leaved aquatic plants can be rooted or just float freely on the surface of the water. They are simply leaves connected by a firm stem or be completely free-floating. A water lily is a common floating-leaved plant Submersed aquatic plants grow deep under the water surface where there is adequate sunlight (Hamel, 2006). These are the different types of aquatic plants. A few trees though can grow in a swamp area such as the common bald cypress and water tupelo. They are found commonly in southern area swamps (2001).

Aquatic plants have special adaptations to their living environment. One adaptation is in submersed plants. They are adapted in being grown deep underwater where sometime sunlight may be limited for the process of photosynthesis. Free-floating plants have enough sunlight but sometime have to compete with another to get the most sunlight for them. Another adaptation is that nutrients and minerals are scarce in some freshwater environment, plus fast moving water may damage a plant's organs. They also must find a way to spread their seed for growth. Luckily, there are a few ways. An aquatic plant's seed can float or be carried by water or wind. The size of the seed does not matter because big seeds like a coconut can float or small seeds can float. Another way for seed dispersal is that the plant's seeds bury themselves into the mud beneath the water (Krause, 2006). Despite these advantages, the aquatic plants still adapt and find away to grow, live and reproduce.

There are a variety of different species of aquatic plants. They are grouped into monocots and eudicots. Cattail is an aquatic plant that is a monocot. The scientific name for it is T. latifolia. It is an emergent plant living in moist soil throughout the U.S. and Canada. Hydrillas (Hydrilla verticillata) are a submersed plant that has white flowers on them. Some other monocots include: Wild Rice, Water Lettuce, Waterhyacinth, Sago Pondweed, Pickerelweed, and Purple Loosestrife. Water lilies are in the group magnoliids. A coontail is a eudicot. The scientific name is Ceratophyllum demersum. It is a free-floating plant that is branched with dissected leaves. Other eudicots include Alligatorweed, Eurasian watermilfoil, and duckweed which are the smallest aquatic plant. My favorite aquatic plant happens to be one called the Mosaic Plant. It has a pretty pattern to it and floats on the surface of the water. There are lots more various species but just to name a few, those are some of the aquatic plants. (Petty, 2006)

These beautiful and maybe not-so beautiful aquatic plants are not just there for any reason. They actually can benefit and be harmful in many reasons. Their benefits affect fishes, wildlife, water quality and people. The plants provide as food for the fish, insects or other wildlife. They have essential nutrients in them to act as food. These plants also provide as shelter. Small animals use the plant to hide away from their predators. One example is a New Zealand fish called the Common Bully would hide in the leaf to keep themselves from being eaten by an eel or other trout fish. Water is also something