Aquatic Plants

Aquatic plants — also called hydrophytic plants or hydrophytes — are plants that have adapted to living in or on aquatic environments. more...

Because living on or under the water surface requires numerous special adaptations, aquatic plants can only grow in water or permanently saturated soil. Aquatic vascular plants can be ferns or angiosperms (from both monocot and dicot families). Seaweeds are not vascular plants but multicellular marine algae, and therefore not typically included in the category, "aquatic plants."

Many fish keepers and aquarium hobbyists keep aquatic plants in their tanks to oxygenate the water for their fish.

Many species of aquatic plant are invasive species in different parts of the world. Aquatic plants make particularly good weeds because they reproduce vegetatively from fragments.

Examples:

• 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 bladderworts.
• Water lettuce

Human nutrition:

• Wild rice (Zizania)
• Water caltrop (Trapa natans)
• Chinese water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis)
• Indian Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)
• Water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica)
• Watercress (Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum)
• Watermimose, Water mimosa ? (Neptunia oleracea)
• Taro (Colocasia esculenta)
• Rice (Oryza) is originally not an aquatic plant.
• Bullrush, Cattail, Typha

• Water-pepper (Polygonum hydropiper)
• Mint?
• Parsley?
• Khat?
• Alfalfa

Animal nutrition:

• Water hyacinth (Eichhornia)
• Duckweed: Lemna, Spirodela und Wolffia

Especially in (South-east) Asia edible Water-plants are suspicious to transmit Fasciolopsiasis by eating them uncooked.

(Compare also: Fasciola hepatica)

Reference

Cook, C.D.K. (ed). 1974. Water Plants of the World. Dr W Junk Publishers, The Hague. ISBN 9061930243

See also:

• List of freshwater aquarium plant species
• Paddy field
• Swamp
• Seagrass

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