| Home | E-mail | Cactuspedia | Mail Sale Catalogue | Links | Information | Search  |

 
 
 
Hydrophyte  [ Botany - Ecology ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

     
  A hydrophyte is a plant that grows in water or in water-logged soil, with submerged  storage organs and perennating bud (s) resting below the water level.  
 
Hydrophytes have a reduced root system, reduced support and vascular systems, and specialized leaves. Anchored hydrophytes have a rooting system that is embedded in the soil and they often have floating leaves.
   
Hydrophytes are a subdivision of cryptophytes  plant  

Cryptophytes:
Plants with resting buds lying either beneath the surface of the ground as a bulbs, corms, rhizomes, etc., or a resting buds submerged under water.

Cryptophytes are further divided up into one of the following:
  • Geophytes: resting in dry land, e.g. Tulip, Ariocarpus
  • Helophytes: resting in marshy, lake or pond edges, e.g. Reed Mace.
  • Hydrophytes: resting by being submerged under water, e.g. Frogbit.
   
     

 

(Compare with mesophytesxerophytes, halophytes and xerohalophytes).

Hydric (environment)  [ Ecology ]

 

Hydric environmental conditions are ones that are very wet.

Compare with very dry conditions (xeric) and medium moisture conditions (mesic).

 


Advertising



 

 
1


 
 
 
Holdfast roots  [ Botany  ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

 
     
  Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.  
     
Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans),  develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994
     

 

 

 

| Home | E-mail | Cactuspedia | Mail Sale Catalogue | Links | Information | Search  |