Aquatic Plants

Pertemuan III. Makrofita

Dr. Chaterina A. Paulus, M.Si

 Aquatic Plants
• Are plants that have adapted to living in or
on aquatic environments
• Aquatic vascular plants can be ferns or
angiosperms
• Algae are not plants!
• Produce oxygen in to
water systems

http://www.kolumbus.fi/markku.yntala/VALOK
UVAT/KASVITHAK/KUKHAK/xxx23.gif
• Some plants grow under water, some float
on the surface and some have aerial
stems

• Hydrophytes have smaller need to

regulate transpiration due to the
abundance of water in its environment

• Aquatic plants require numerous special

adaptations
 Characteristics of hydrophytes:
1. A thin cuticle
2. Stomata that are open most of the time
3. An increased number of stomata
4. A less rigid structure
5. Flat leaves and air sacs for flotation
6. Smaller and feathery roots
7. Specialized roots able to take in oxygen
 Aquatic plants in Indonesia
1. .... species ????
2. The number of species decreases or
increases??? WHY??
3. gradually when going from south to north
4. Are the plants have to adapt to Indonesia
climate? (high and low water temperature)
provide the answer on the answer sheet for task summary task 3!
Aquatic plant
life forms
 Aquatic plants with aireal stems
1. Common reed, water horsetail, bulrush

http://www.kolumbus.fi/markku.yntala/VALOKUVAT/KAS
http://www.webkasvio.fi/kuvat/48_200.jpg VITHAK/SAMMALHAK/jarvikorte.jpg
 Leaves under water
2. Water milfoil, perfoliate pondweed,
Canadian waterweed

http://kati.tiuhti.net/valokuvia/Vesiotokat/Akvaario/2.php

http://www.ruoko.fi/index.php?page=kasvit
 Floating leaves
3. Yellow waterlily, water-lily, broad-leaved
pondweed

http://www.ymparisto.fi/download.asp?contentid=68007 http://www.cartinafinland.fi/luontokuvia/ima
ges/lumme.jpg
 Under water sprouts
4. Quillwort family, water lobelia

https://www-
hotel1.it.helsinki.fi/~ekuva/virtuaalikasvio/plant.php?id=481
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_iPwm_--lkWA/RrY3y3VEFyI/AAAAAAAACBg/XhP_WILJ8B8/IMG_1227.JPG 6
 Free floaters
5. Duckweed, frogbit
6. Rigid hornwort, common bladderwort

http://www.luontokuvateskonen.com/gallery/main.php?g
2_itemId=1091
 Water mosses
7. Peat moss

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 Explain the meaning..!
1. Pond water-crowfoot = …..
2. Broad-leaved pondweed = .....
3. Water horsetail = .......
4. Common reed = ....
5. Perfoliate pondweed = .....
6. Yellow waterlily = ......
7. Water-lily = .....
8. Duck weed = ......
provide the answer on the answer sheet for task summary task 3!
Hydrophytic
Vegetation

• Definitions and depth zonation

• Survival strategies
• Role in the structure and function of wetlands
 Hydrophytes

“Any macrophyte that grows in water or on a substrate

that is at least periodically deficient in oxygen as a result
of excessive water content; plants typically found in wet
habitats.²”

drier wetter

The presence of hydrophytes is one of three elements

comprising the definition of a wetland.
2. Wetland Training Institute 1987. Field Guide for Wetland Delineation, Corps of Engineers
Manual
 Evolution of Aquatic Plants

Unlike aquatic microflora, they are not “true children of the

water”.

“Their ancestors came out of the water and were

transformed into aerial organisms, then individual members
of these groups re-adapted to return to the water”. ³

3. Ruttner, Franz 1963. Fundamentals of Limnology, Univ. of Toronto Press. p. 179.

 Structural Groups

Free-floating

Emergent

Floating-leaf

Submersed
Structural Groups Emergents
Plants whose roots and basal
portions grow beneath the
surface of shallow water but
whose leaves and stems are
born primarily in the air.

Examples include bulrush,

cattails, arrowhead, rushes,
sedges, and many shoreline
plants. Depths -0.5m - 1.5m
Image from University of Florida
Aquatic, Wetland and Invasive Plant Information Retrieval System
Structural Groups Floating-Leaf

Plants whose
leaves float on
the water’s
surface but
their roots are
anchored in
the substrate.
Depths 0.5 m - 3 m
Structural Groups Free Floating

Plants that float with

most of their body
above the water’s
surface. Roots, if
present, hang free in
the water. Depths variable
but restricted to nonturbulent,
protected areas.

Water Hyacinth
Image from Univ. of Florida
Structural Groups Submersed

Plants that spend their

entire life cycle, with
the possible exception
of flowering, beneath
the surface of the
water. Depths to 10 m

Hydrilla
 Overview

Part II. Strategies for life under water:

1. Oxygen exchange
2. Photosynthesis
3. Obtaining nutrients
4. Structural support
 Oxygen Exchange

“…as far as hydrophytes are concerned,

oxygen is a rare and precious commodity.”

Agnes Arber, 1920 Water Plants

Oxygen Exchange, continued

• Cells in root tissue respire, in terrestrial plants

oxygen is obtained from air spaces in the soil.

• Although oxygen may be present in the water column,

respiration by aquatic biota and by soil organisms,
together with slow diffusion of oxygen in water, results
in anoxic conditions in the soil

• In obligate anaerobes, anoxia leads to cell

death in 24 hours
Oxygen Suppy Strategies of Vascular Plants, cont.

• Structural adaptations
a. Aerenchyma
b. Special organs or responses
i. Adventitious roots
ii. Stem elongation
iii. Lenticels
iv. Pneumatophores
c. Pressurized gas flow

• Physiological adaptations
a. Anaerobic respiration
b. Malate production
 Adventitious roots

Photo from Rolf Kyburz

Gaussia spirituana (palm growing on coral reef)

 Pneumatophores

From www.nhmi.org
Bill Keogh, Photographer
 Lenticels

www.pssc.ttu.edu/pss1411cd/PLANTID/ glossary/glossary.htm

Pear tree
Oxygen Exchange Aerenchyma
Large intercellular
structures (pore
spaces) which
extend throughout
the entire plant and
allow for the
storage and
transport of gas to
the submerged
roots.
aka Lacunae

Image from University of Florida

Aquatic, Wetland and Invasive Plant Information Retrieval System
more on aerenchyma…..

• Development of aerenchyma in individual

plants stimulated by flooding

• Formed by increased cellulase activity (cell

lysis) or cell separation in cortex

• Pore space in submerged portions of plant as

high as 60% (compared to 7% in terrestrial
plants)
Jussiaea peruviana (tropical)

A. mud roots (m.r.) and the

adventitous roots (a.r.)

B. Transverse section of
submerged part of a stem to
show aerenchyma (a) which
develops from the phellogen
(pg). Also shown is the
phloem (ph), normal
cambium (c), xylem (xy).

From Arber, Agnes 1920 Water

Plants. Cambridge University
PressWater Plants, p.190.
 Oxygen Exchange
Emergent and floating plants obtain
oxygen directly from the atmosphere
through stomata on the leaves.
Passive diffusion of oxygen along a
concentration gradient

Reverse flow due to concentration

gradient of CO2 and CH4

Figure from Brix, H. 1993. Macrophyte-Mediated Oxygen

Transfer in Weltands: Transport Mechanisms and Rates in
Constructed Wetlands for Water Quality Improvement,
Moshiri, ed. p. 393.
 Oxygen Exchange

Convective flow of gas in

water lilies. Pressurized
gas transport is induced by
humidity and thermal
gradients.

Figure from Brix, H. 1993. Macrophyte-Mediated Oxygen Transfer in Weltands: Transport Mechanisms
and Rates in Constructed Wetlands for Water Quality Improvement, Moshiri, ed. p. 394.
 Responses to Flooding
Flooding

Increased sensitivity Petiole cell

to gibberellic acid elongation

Ethylene
buildup
Initiation of
adventitous roots

Leaves reach
Cellulase Increased surface
activity aerenchyma

Ethylene dissipates
 The picture can't be displayed.

Oxygen Exchange

Submersed plants must

obtain dissolved oxygen
from the water.

Leaves have high

surface area to volume O2
ratio, cuticle is absent

Eurasian watermilfoil
Image from Univ. of Florida
 Photosynthesis

• Submersed plants have their photosynthetic

maximum at lower light levels (ca. 15% full sun
or less)

• Light intensity is believed to be the limiting factor in

determining the maximum depth at which an aquatic
plant can survive (although for rooted plants it could be
gas transport)

• Compensation depth - where respiration exactly

equals photosynthesis (species specific)
 Photosynthesis

• Not all submersed species are

equally adapted to low light:

Elodea densa optimum at 107 lux (0.3% full

sun) whereas Heteranthera dubia optimum at
6350 lux (18%)

• Accessory pigments allow for

high variability in spectral
preferences :
Elodea densa died under light 480-630 nm
(yellow-green) whereas Heteranthera dubia
grew 3 times greater.
 Getting Carbon for
Photosynthesis

CO2 Emergents, floating leaved

⇑⇓
CO2 + H2O ⇔ H2CO3 ⇔ H+ + HCO3- ⇔ H+ + CO32-

Some submersed
All submersed
use both
 Obtaining
Nutrients

In rooted aquatic plants nutrient absorption is primarily

through the roots.
Obtaining Nutrients Submersed Plants

Some foliar uptake

may occur, especially
in waters with high
nutrient
concentrations.
 Chara
Free floating macrophytes
obtain nutrients directly
from the water through
foliar absorption and
through water roots.

The unrooted macroalga

Chara absorbs P equally
well in all parts (Littlefield and
Forsberg 1965)

Image from Univ. of Florida

Thanks