Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments. They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that grows in or near water and is either emergent, submergent, or floating. In lakes and rivers, macrophytes provide cover for fish, substrate for aquatic invertebrates, produce oxygen, and act as food for some fish and wildlife.
Ceratophyllum is a cosmopolitan genus of flowering plants including four accepted living species in 2016, commonly found in ponds, marshes, and quiet streams in tropical and in temperate regions. It is the only extant genus in the family Ceratophyllaceae, itself the only extant family in the order Ceratophyllales. They are usually called coontails or hornworts, although hornwort is also used for unrelated plants of the division Anthocerotophyta.
Water garden or aquatic garden, is a term sometimes used for gardens, or parts of gardens, where any type of water feature is a principal or dominant element. The primary focus is on plants, but they will sometimes also house waterfowl, or ornamental fish, in which case it may be called a fish pond. They vary enormously in size and style.
Elodea is a genus of 6 species of aquatic plants often called the waterweeds described as a genus in 1803. Classified in the frog's-bit family (Hydrocharitaceae), Elodea is native to the Americas and is also widely used as aquarium vegetation and laboratory demonstrations of cellular activities. It lives in fresh water. An older name for this genus is Anacharis, which serves as a common name in North America.
Hydrilla (waterthyme) is a genus of aquatic plant, usually treated as containing just one species, Hydrilla verticillata, though some botanists divide it into several species. It is native to the cool and warm waters of the Old World in Asia, Africa and Australia, with a sparse, scattered distribution; in Australia from Northern Territory, Queensland, and New South Wales.
This article gives an overview of the aquatic communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system.
Aponogeton distachyos or Aponogeton distachyum, also known as waterblommetjie, Cape-pondweed, water hawthorn, vleikos and Cape pond weed is an aquatic flowering plant.
Hydrocotyle, also called floating pennywort, water pennywort, Indian pennywort, dollar weed, marsh penny, thick-leaved pennywort and white rot, is a genus of prostrate, perennial aquatic or semi-aquatic plants formerly classified in the family Apiaceae, now in the family Araliaceae.
Azolla cristata , the Carolina mosquitofern, Carolina azolla or water velvet, is a species of Azolla native to the Americas, in eastern North America from southern Ontario southward, and from the east coast west to Wisconsin and Texas, and in the Caribbean, and in Central and South America from southeastern Mexico (Chiapas) south to northern Argentina and Uruguay.
Cabomba caroliniana, commonly known as Carolina fanwort and various other names, is an aquatic perennial herbaceous plant native to North and South America. Having been a popular aquarium plant, it has been exported around the world, and has become an invasive species in Europe and Australia.
Crassula helmsii, known as swamp stonecrop or New Zealand pigmyweed, is an aquatic or semiterrestrial species of succulent plant in the family Crassulaceae. Originally found in Australia and New Zealand, it has been introduced around the world. In the United Kingdom, this plant is one of five introduced invasive aquatic plants that were banned from sale from April 2014, the first ban of its kind in the country. It is on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility's Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species of eleven countries.
Marsilea quadrifolia is a herbaceous plant found naturally in central and southern Europe, Caucasia, western Siberia, Afghanistan, south-west India, China, Japan, and Vietnam, though it is considered a weed in some parts of the United States, where it has been well established in the northeast for over 100 years. Its common names include four leaf clover and European waterclover (USA), even though it is not a species of clover.
Potamogeton gramineus is a species of aquatic plant known by the common name various-leaved pondweed, variableleaf pondweed, grass-leaved pondweed or grassy pondweed, native to the northern hemisphere where it grows in shallow, clean water.
Ceratophyllum echinatum, known as prickly hornwort, spiny hornwort, or spiny coontail, is an aquatic, perennial plant found in North America. Its name comes from fruits, which have a warty surface and long spines. Spiny hornwort can be found in ponds and lakes, principally in eastern North America. It is the only species of its genus endemic to North America.
Limnocharis flava is a species of aquatic flowering plant which is native to Mexico, Central America, South America, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic but widely naturalized in southern and southeastern Asia: India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and southern China.
Ceratophyllum submersum, commonly known as the soft hornwort or tropical hornwort, is a species of Ceratophyllum. It is a submerged, free-floating aquatic plant. It has been reported from Europe, Central Asia, northern Africa, scattered places in tropical Africa, Turkey, Oman, Florida, and the Dominican Republic. It is similar to the submerged macrophyte Ceratophyllum demersum, a congeneric plant that is found in most regions of the world.
Limnobium laevigatum is a floating aquatic plant, and is a member of the family Hydrocharitaceae. Common names include West Indian spongeplant, South American spongeplant and Amazon or smooth frogbit. This plant was introduced to North American waterways through use in aquariums and aquascapes.
Podostemum ceratophyllum, commonly known as the hornleaf riverweed, is a species of submerged aquatic plant in the family Podostemaceae. It is native to eastern North America where it grows on hard bottoms in swiftly flowing rivers and streams and is considered a foundation species.
Phyllanthus fluitans, also known as the red root floater, floating spurge, or apple duckweed is a species of free floating aquatic plant and herbaceous perennial in the family Phyllanthaceae. This species is one of the only three non-terrestrial species in the genus Phyllanthus, with the other species being P. leonardianus and P. felicis. The generic name comes from Ancient Greek meaning leaf or a leaf flower, and the specific name comes from Latin meaning floating or float. It was described in March 1863 by George Bentham and Johannes Müller Argoviensis.
