Project Amazonia: Characterization - Biotic - Water Plants
Water plant species have been used in sustainable farming experiments due to their rapid growth and weak tissue.1 In Southern Brazil, water plants have been used as feed on chicken farms—with positive results.2
Water plants play important roles in the Amazon Ecosystem; both in waterways and out. Many animals depend on this kind of plant: root systems shelter small fish, amphibians, and crustaceans. While there is a large variety of aquatic plant species in the Amazon ecosystem, few are common. These species, including water hyacinth and water lettuce, are important to the river ecosystems and the surrounding rainforest.3
Water Hyacinth
(http://homepage.westmont.edu/)
Members of this species grow to sizes ranging between a few centimeters to over a meter. Their leaves can grow to twenty centimeters in length and fifteen centimeters wide.4 Water hyacinths grow in lakes, rivers, ponds, ditches, and even backwater areas. Reproducing both sexually and asexually, the hyacinth can spread vigorously, causing problems in the absence of manatee. In particularly bad situations, this plant can block entire waterways. The seeds, which can germinate in eighteen days, also may remain dormant for up to twenty years in low rainfall situations.
Floating Meadows
(http://www.junglephotos.com/plants/)
During floods, these plants are broken up and moved by river systems. The small organisms which live in their root systems are transported to different regions. This ecological isolation results in diversification of the transported organisms.
