A hydrophyte (derived from the Greek, νδρω-, hydro = water, and φνtov, phyton = plant) is a plant that has hydrophytic modifications of the basic plan, adapting it for life submerged totally, partially, or occasionally in water, as water lilies (Nymphaeaceae), bladderworts (Utricularia), Myriophyllum or Aponogeton. Hydrophytic modifications are generally those thought of as alterations in the form of the plant (principally in the leaves and associated organs) that increase surface area at the expense of volume, in turn increasing the interface between cell surfaces and the environment, thus increasing the efficiency of gas exchange. For example, the leaves are only a few cells thick and almost filmy (the submerged leaves of some Potamogeton and of Elodea); or finely divided (in many Utricularia); or have the cuticle thin or lacking; or reduced to net-like paddles in Aponogeton fenestralis. Many hydrophytes have creeping horizontal rhizomes with numerous fibrous roots that anchor the...
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Bibliography
Bold, H. C., 1973. Morphology of Plants (3rd edn). New York: Harper & Row, 668 pp.
Esau, K., 1965. Plant Anatomy. New York: Wiley, 767 pp.
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© 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Lefor, M.W. (1999). Hydrophyte. In: Environmental Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4494-1_184
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4494-1_184
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