Marsh plant

Common fir frond ( Hippuris vulgaris )

As marsh plants , helophyte of Greek  ἕλος effortlessly , marsh, swamp 'and φυτόν phyton , plant', are understood to be plants that are rooted in a background which is under water or more water-logged whose leaves and flowers, however, almost always in the air space are located.

structure

The marsh plants can be divided into four groups of life and growth forms:

• Reed plants (arundophytes), which penetrate the banks of water to a depth of about 1.5 m andare able to form dense standsthanks to strong rhizomes . The reed plants include:
  • Hedgehog flask
  • Sweet flag
  • Cattail
  • reed
  • Pond rushes

• Shallow water plants (tenagophytes) are usually very well adapted to fluctuations in water level. You can develop underwater, floating leaf, shallow water and land forms depending on the water depth. The shallow water plants include:
  • Bachbunge
  • Watercress
  • Ordinary frog spoon
  • Lips
  • Arrowhead
  • Pill ferns
  • Common iris
  • Ordinary fir frond
  • Four-leaved fern clover
  • Ears of water
  • Blue Water Speedwell
  • Sedge grass

• Wet soil plants (limosophytes) prefer to grow in long-term water-saturated substrate. Flooding phases in winter are survived with underground parts or as seeds. Wet soil plants include, for example:
  • Needle ledges
  • Shield Speedwell
  • Wolfstrapp

• Moist soil plants (uligophytes) need moist soil and can endure flooding. Representatives of the moist soil plants can often be found on floodplain meadows or on the tall herbaceous meadows that accompany the banks. They include, for example:
  • valerian
  • Marsh cranesbill
  • Wasserdost

Marsh plants for human consumption

• Watercress ( Nasturtium officinale )
• Common arrowhead ( Sagittaria sagittifolia )
• Rice ( oryza , was not a swamp plant in its wild form)
• Cattail , ( Typha )
• Taro (also taro , Colocasia esculenta )
• Wasabi ( Wasabia japonica )
• Water chestnut ( Eleocharis dulcis )
• Watermimosa ( Neptunia natans )
• Water pepper ( Persicaria hydropiper )
• Water spinach ( Ipomoea aquatica )
• Wild rice ( Zizania , "water bamboo")

Many parasites live in the water . They can be transferred to humans and animals if swamp and aquatic plants are eaten uncooked. Especially in Southeast Asia, for example, the giant intestinal leech is transmitted via cercariae , which have encysted themselves on marsh and aquatic plants as metacercariae .

literature

• Eberhard Schuster and Siegfried Sommer: Marsh and water plants. Melsungen 1987, ISBN 3-7888-0515-3 .
• Heinz-Dieter Krausch : color atlas water and bank plants. Ulmer, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-8001-3352-0 .

See also

• Aquatic plants

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Renate Wahrig-Burfeind (Ed.): True. Illustrated dictionary of the German language . ADAC-Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-577-10051-6 , pp. 369 .