1. Agricultural and Horticultural Enterprises

3. Natural Resources and Environmental Quality

Herbicides

Aquatic and Wetland Plants

Weeds

Malezas

Native Plants

Indigenous Plants

As Floridians, we love our freshwater resources. Did you know Florida has over 1 million acres of freshwater? That&#8217;s about the size of Rhode Island! Many of our fondest memories are of boating, fishing, or water skiing in freshwater systems across the state. Other activities include kayaking our famous spring runs or birdwatching among the [&#8230;]

<figure id="attachment_4243" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-4243" style="width: 525px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/sagittaria-lancifolia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" class="wp-image-4243 lazyload" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" alt="Duck potato, a native aquatic plant." width="525" height="350" data-src="https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/caip/files/2024/02/Apopka_Gladding_April22_IMG_8996-300x200.jpg"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-4243" class="wp-caption-text">Duck potato (Sagittaria lancifolia) is one of Florida&#8217;s many native aquatic plants.</figcaption></figure>
As Floridians, we love our freshwater resources. Did you know Florida has over 1 million acres of freshwater? That&#8217;s about the size of Rhode Island! Many of our fondest memories are of boating, fishing, or water skiing in freshwater systems across the state. Other activities include kayaking our famous spring runs or birdwatching among the numerous wetlands. While the water itself is often the focus, aquatic plants are essential to any healthy freshwater system and provide a variety of benefits. There are three main ways aquatic plants serve Florida&#8217;s unique and vast aquatic ecosystems.
Habitat. Whether completely submerged under water or extended into the air, plants provide habitat for a wide variety of critters. Small fish and insects will use these plants to hide from predators. In turn, these plants then attract wading birds and larger fish that are looking for a meal. These predator/prey relationships are necessary for a healthy and complex food web where large amounts of nutrients are being consumed and recycled in the ecosystem. Without these plants you will have fewer insects, fewer fish that feed on the insects, and fewer birds feeding on those fish.  
Oxygen. Just like humans, our aquatic friends need oxygen too. While oxygen diffuses from the air into the water, underwater plants and algae add oxygen directly to the water during photosynthesis (just like trees release oxygen into the air). So having a variety of healthy plants allows the fish to breathe easily. 
Water Clarity. When you have more plants in a lake, you generally have much clearer water. There are two reasons for this&#8230; 1. Plants provide a place for periphyton (pair-AH-phi-ton) to attach and grow. Periphyton is a complex mix of algae, bacteria, and other microbes that remove nutrients from the water. Less nutrients mean less algae and clearer water. 2. As plants grow, older leaves fall to the bottom and become “muck”. This muck layer is high in nutrients, but simply sits on the bottom and waits to be eaten by crayfish and insects. However, if the muck gets stirred up with wind, they can start to decay and rapidly release their nutrients and sometimes causing algae blooms. But plants stabilize the water and help keep this muck in place, resulting in clearer water.  
<figure id="attachment_4263" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-4263" style="width: 506px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/pontederia-cordata/"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-4263 " src="https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/caip/files/2024/02/Apopka_Gladding_April22_PurpleGallinule__IMG_9015-300x200.jpg" alt="Purple Gallinule among aquatic plants" width="506" height="337" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-4263" class="wp-caption-text">Purple Gallinule, a native bird species, nested among Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata) a native aquatic plant.</figcaption></figure>
The key to a healthy ecosystem is a wide variety of native plants. Native plants are unique in that they work in harmony with the local ecosystem, this can mean having native critters that rely on the plant for survival and leaving room for other native plants to thrive. You want some plants that start early in the season and others that grow later in the year. You also want plants that prefer shallow water and others that do best in deeper water. With this diversity of plants, you have a balanced ecosystem that supports the recreational activities we enjoy and the wildlife we love.
Stay tuned for <a href="https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/caip/2024/02/27/why-are-aquatic-plants-managed/">our next blog</a>, where I discuss the need for invasive plant management in aquatic systems!
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Questions or comments can be sent to the UF/IFAS CAIP communications manager at <a href="mailto:caip@ifas.ufl.edu">caip@ifas.ufl.edu</a>. Follow UF/IFAS CAIP on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ufifascaip/">Instagram</a>. 
<a href="https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/caip/subscribe/">Subscribe</a> for more blogs like this one. 
<a href="http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/">UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants.</a> Turning Science Into Solutions.
Did you find this post helpful or interesting? Click the heart below!

Duck potato (Sagittaria lancifolia) is one of Florida’s many native aquatic plants.
As Floridians, we love our freshwater resources. Did you know Florida has over 1 million acres of freshwater? That’s about the size of Rhode Island! Many of our fondest memories are of boating, fishing, or water skiing in freshwater systems across the state. Other activities include kayaking our famous spring runs or birdwatching among the numerous wetlands. While the water itself is often the focus, aquatic plants are essential to any healthy freshwater system and provide a variety of benefits. There are three main ways aquatic plants serve Florida’s unique and vast aquatic ecosystems.
Habitat. Whether completely submerged under water or extended into the air, plants provide habitat for a wide variety of critters. Small fish and insects will use these plants to hide from predators. In turn, these plants then attract wading birds and larger fish that are looking for a meal. These predator/prey relationships are necessary for a healthy and complex food web where large amounts of nutrients are being consumed and recycled in the ecosystem. Without these plants you will have fewer insects, fewer fish that feed on the insects, and fewer birds feeding on those fish.  
Oxygen. Just like humans, our aquatic friends need oxygen too. While oxygen diffuses from the air into the water, underwater plants and algae add oxygen directly to the water during photosynthesis (just like trees release oxygen into the air). So having a variety of healthy plants allows the fish to breathe easily. 
Water Clarity. When you have more plants in a lake, you generally have much clearer water. There are two reasons for this… 1. Plants provide a place for periphyton (pair-AH-phi-ton) to attach and grow. Periphyton is a complex mix of algae, bacteria, and other microbes that remove nutrients from the water. Less nutrients mean less algae and clearer water. 2. As plants grow, older leaves fall to the bottom and become “muck”. This muck layer is high in nutrients, but simply sits on the bottom and waits to be eaten by crayfish and insects. However, if the muck gets stirred up with wind, they can start to decay and rapidly release their nutrients and sometimes causing algae blooms. But plants stabilize the water and help keep this muck in place, resulting in clearer water.  
Purple Gallinule, a native bird species, nested among Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata) a native aquatic plant.
The key to a healthy ecosystem is a wide variety of native plants. Native plants are unique in that they work in harmony with the local ecosystem, this can mean having native critters that rely on the plant for survival and leaving room for other native plants to thrive. You want some plants that start early in the season and others that grow later in the year. You also want plants that prefer shallow water and others that do best in deeper water. With this diversity of plants, you have a balanced ecosystem that supports the recreational activities we enjoy and the wildlife we love.
Stay tuned for our next blog, where I discuss the need for invasive plant management in aquatic systems!
 
 
Questions or comments can be sent to the UF/IFAS CAIP communications manager at caip@ifas.ufl.edu. Follow UF/IFAS CAIP on Instagram. 
Subscribe for more blogs like this one. 
UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. Turning Science Into Solutions.
Did you find this post helpful or interesting? Click the heart below!

As Floridians, we love our freshwater resources. Did you know Florida has over 1 million acres of freshwater? That’s about the size of Rhode Island! Many of our fondest memories are of boating, fishing, or water skiing in freshwater systems across the state. Other activities include kayaking our famous spring runs or birdwatching among the […]

Why are plants important to aquatic ecosystems?

This blog post was written by Vinícius Londe, a post-doctoral researcher at the UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants.  I grew up in a small city in the countryside of Minas Gerais State, Brazil, and my research interests have their roots there. My grandmothers lived on small farms along a river, where I spent [&#8230;]

This blog post was written by Vinícius Londe, a post-doctoral researcher at the UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. 
I grew up in a small city in the countryside of Minas Gerais State, Brazil, and my research interests have their roots there. My grandmothers lived on small farms along a river, where I spent most of my childhood. I used to play near the water during my frequent visits to my grandmothers’ homes. Years later, I stopped near the riverbank and observed the water carefully. There were small, long-bodied invertebrates and almost no other living organisms. This change in the aquatic environment that meant so much to me as a child motivated me to pursue a career in science. I wanted to learn more about ecological indicators and how to use them to monitor ecosystem health. 
I used a set of ecological indicators in my thesis and dissertation to monitor the success of forest restoration. In 2015, I began working with large datasets and answering large-scale questions. The skills I developed since then opened the doors to a job in another country, and here I am, working with large datasets from the long-term monitoring of lakes in Florida. 
<h4>The current project</h4>
Invasive aquatic plants are a major problem in Florida’s lakes and rivers. Approximately $20 million is spent each year controlling the populations of invasive plants in Florida, especially hydrilla, water hyacinth, and water lettuce. Such control is mainly achieved by applying herbicides that have been explicitly developed to kill invasive plant species. However, as people widely use Florida’s lakes and rivers, there is legitimate concern about managing invasive plants with herbicides. An ongoing project led by the CAIP in partnership with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and LAKEWATCH and financed by the US Army Corps of Engineers is compiling long-term monitoring data to address this concern.
<figure id="attachment_3901" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3901" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/caip/files/2023/08/AdobeStock_369696445-scaled.jpeg"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-3901 size-medium lazyload" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" alt="" width="300" height="200" data-src="https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/caip/files/2023/08/AdobeStock_369696445-300x200.jpeg"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3901" class="wp-caption-text">Largemouth bass population data was used in this study</figcaption></figure>
FWC and LAKEWATCH have collected plant, fish, and water quality data since the ’90s. My role in the project is to merge these different datasets, analyze the data using robust statistics, and extract conceptual and practical results. My first task was to verify whether and how the cover of invasive plants affected fish populations. In the last few months, I have analyzed data from 33 lakes to check the effects of plants on the entire fish community, that is, all fish species collected in those lakes. We are also interested in the impact of plants on specific fish groups, such as sports and non-native fish. As sporting fish are very important in Florida and the US, we also dedicate a research line focused on the largemouth bass population. In this case, data from 39 lakes have been analyzed. 
<h4>Results so far&#8230;</h4>
We already have some interesting results to share, which will be done in the following months. Also, our next step is to verify whether and how using herbicides to manage invasive plants affects fish populations over the long term. Thus, stay tuned to the blog and, of course, feel free to contact us. 
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<hr />
This blog post was written by Vinícius Londe, a post-doctoral researcher at the UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. This post features research and information from a current project he is analyzing at the Center. Questions or comments can be sent to the UF/IFAS CAIP communications manager at <a href="mailto:caip@ifas.ufl.edu">caip@ifas.ufl.edu</a>. Follow UF/IFAS CAIP on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ufifascaip/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/UFIFASCAIP">Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/UFIFASCAIP">Twitter</a>. <a href="https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/caip/subscribe/">Subscribe</a> for more blogs like this one.
<a href="http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/">UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants.</a> Turning Science Into Solutions.
Did you find this post helpful? Click the heart below!

This blog post was written by Vinícius Londe, a post-doctoral researcher at the UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. 
I grew up in a small city in the countryside of Minas Gerais State, Brazil, and my research interests have their roots there. My grandmothers lived on small farms along a river, where I spent most of my childhood. I used to play near the water during my frequent visits to my grandmothers’ homes. Years later, I stopped near the riverbank and observed the water carefully. There were small, long-bodied invertebrates and almost no other living organisms. This change in the aquatic environment that meant so much to me as a child motivated me to pursue a career in science. I wanted to learn more about ecological indicators and how to use them to monitor ecosystem health. 
I used a set of ecological indicators in my thesis and dissertation to monitor the success of forest restoration. In 2015, I began working with large datasets and answering large-scale questions. The skills I developed since then opened the doors to a job in another country, and here I am, working with large datasets from the long-term monitoring of lakes in Florida. 
The current project
Invasive aquatic plants are a major problem in Florida’s lakes and rivers. Approximately $20 million is spent each year controlling the populations of invasive plants in Florida, especially hydrilla, water hyacinth, and water lettuce. Such control is mainly achieved by applying herbicides that have been explicitly developed to kill invasive plant species. However, as people widely use Florida’s lakes and rivers, there is legitimate concern about managing invasive plants with herbicides. An ongoing project led by the CAIP in partnership with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and LAKEWATCH and financed by the US Army Corps of Engineers is compiling long-term monitoring data to address this concern.
Largemouth bass population data was used in this study
FWC and LAKEWATCH have collected plant, fish, and water quality data since the ’90s. My role in the project is to merge these different datasets, analyze the data using robust statistics, and extract conceptual and practical results. My first task was to verify whether and how the cover of invasive plants affected fish populations. In the last few months, I have analyzed data from 33 lakes to check the effects of plants on the entire fish community, that is, all fish species collected in those lakes. We are also interested in the impact of plants on specific fish groups, such as sports and non-native fish. As sporting fish are very important in Florida and the US, we also dedicate a research line focused on the largemouth bass population. In this case, data from 39 lakes have been analyzed. 
Results so far…
We already have some interesting results to share, which will be done in the following months. Also, our next step is to verify whether and how using herbicides to manage invasive plants affects fish populations over the long term. Thus, stay tuned to the blog and, of course, feel free to contact us. 
 
This blog post was written by Vinícius Londe, a post-doctoral researcher at the UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. This post features research and information from a current project he is analyzing at the Center. Questions or comments can be sent to the UF/IFAS CAIP communications manager at caip@ifas.ufl.edu. Follow UF/IFAS CAIP on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Subscribe for more blogs like this one.
UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. Turning Science Into Solutions.
Did you find this post helpful? Click the heart below!

This blog post was written by Vinícius Londe, a post-doctoral researcher at the UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants.  I grew up in a small city in the countryside of Minas Gerais State, Brazil, and my research interests have their roots there. My grandmothers lived on small farms along a river, where I spent […]

Post-Doc Perspective: From the Rainforest to the Swamp

Aquatic Plants and How They Spread Two things are a given in Florida: hot, humid weather and lots of boat traffic. Have you ever looked over the side of a boat and seen a thick, dark green mat of plant material underwater the water or touching the surface? Chances are, you have. What you saw [&#8230;]

<figure id="attachment_3287" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3287" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/caip/files/2022/06/Darnell_2022.07_Blog_Picture1.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3287 size-medium lazyload" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" alt="Shallow water near a boat ramp with plants underwater" width="300" height="226" data-src="https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/caip/files/2022/06/Darnell_2022.07_Blog_Picture1-300x226.jpg"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3287" class="wp-caption-text">Common aquatic plant fragments establishing at a boat ramp on East Lake Tohopekaliga, Florida.</figcaption></figure>
<h3>Aquatic Plants and How They Spread</h3>
Two things are a given in Florida: hot, humid weather and lots of boat traffic. Have you ever looked over the side of a boat and seen a thick, dark green mat of plant material underwater the water or touching the surface? Chances are, you have. What you saw may have been hydrilla; a noxious aquatic weed that spreads between waterbodies, mainly by way of fragments. When you drove through that thick, topped-out mat of hydrilla, your boat propellor sliced through the hydrilla stems and created hundreds of thousands of fragments.
Congratulations! You have just contributed to the spread of nuisance aquatic plants. No need to fret… unless you are planning on leaving the current waterbody with your boat, not removing those aquatic plant fragments, and putting your boat in at another boat ramp halfway across the state.
<h3>What Does the Research Say?</h3>
Research has shown that about half of all boats that leave the boat ramp never remove any aquatic plant fragments that they accumulate, which means these fragments could carried on to the next waterbody a boat visits. This is an extremely problematic practice, especially if you are taking your boat out of one waterbody and relaunching at another boat ramp in the same day.
<figure id="attachment_3289" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3289" style="width: 226px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/caip/files/2022/06/Darnell_2022.07_Blog_Picture2.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-3289 lazyload" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" alt="" width="226" height="300" data-src="https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/caip/files/2022/06/Darnell_2022.07_Blog_Picture2-226x300.jpg"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3289" class="wp-caption-text">Hydrilla fragments that have been dried for 13 days on a carpet bunk. Notice the green fragments within the yellow, dead fragments.</figcaption></figure>
While the plant fragments that are exposed on your boat trailer will dry out as you travel from waterbody to waterbody, or back home, there is a concern about the fragments that are trapped between the boat hull and the bunk. The fragments that are trapped between the boat hull and the bunk may not fully dry out and may still be able to grow into new plant mats when you go to launch your boat next time. Current research has shown that the type of bunk material (bare wood, carpeted, or plastic slips) influences the time it takes to fully dry out the aquatic plant fragments that are crushed on the boat bunks.
<h3>How Long Can Aquatic Plant Fragments Survive?</h3>
Research has shown that in Florida&#8217;s cooler months (January through March) that after 14 days of drying, 100% of all hydrilla fragments remain viable that were crushed and dried on carpet, plastic, or bare wood bunks. In the warmer months (April through June), hydrilla fragments that were dried on carpeted bunks had 0% fragment viability after 14 days of drying as compared to 20% viability for bare wood bunks, and 100% fragment viability for plastic-covered bunks. Viability is the ability of the plant fragments to regrow following a drying period.
So, what does this mean for you? Take the time to clean your boat of any aquatic plant fragments before leaving the boat ramp, empty any live wells or bait pails at the boat ramp, and do not move aquatic organisms from one waterbody to another. Finally, if you chose not to remove any aquatic plant fragments, allow adequate time (at least 14 days in warmer temperatures) for the boat and bunks to adequately dry out and limit viable fragment transfer.
Are you interested in more information on how to prevent the spread of harmful aquatic plants and other species? Visit <a href="https://stopaquatichitchhikers.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers</a>.
<hr />
This blog post was written by Taylor Darnell, UF/IFAS CAIP graduate student. This post features research and information from his graduate research project and thesis. Questions or comments can be sent to the UF/IFAS CAIP communications manager at <a href="mailto:caip@ifas.ufl.edu">caip@ifas.ufl.edu</a>. Follow UF/IFAS CAIP on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ufifascaip/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/UFIFASCAIP">Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/UFIFASCAIP">Twitter</a>. <a href="https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/caip/subscribe/">Subscribe</a> for more blogs like this one.
<a href="http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/">UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants.</a> Turning Science Into Solutions.
Did you find this post helpful? Click the heart below!

Common aquatic plant fragments establishing at a boat ramp on East Lake Tohopekaliga, Florida.
Aquatic Plants and How They Spread
Two things are a given in Florida: hot, humid weather and lots of boat traffic. Have you ever looked over the side of a boat and seen a thick, dark green mat of plant material underwater the water or touching the surface? Chances are, you have. What you saw may have been hydrilla; a noxious aquatic weed that spreads between waterbodies, mainly by way of fragments. When you drove through that thick, topped-out mat of hydrilla, your boat propellor sliced through the hydrilla stems and created hundreds of thousands of fragments.
Congratulations! You have just contributed to the spread of nuisance aquatic plants. No need to fret… unless you are planning on leaving the current waterbody with your boat, not removing those aquatic plant fragments, and putting your boat in at another boat ramp halfway across the state.
What Does the Research Say?
Research has shown that about half of all boats that leave the boat ramp never remove any aquatic plant fragments that they accumulate, which means these fragments could carried on to the next waterbody a boat visits. This is an extremely problematic practice, especially if you are taking your boat out of one waterbody and relaunching at another boat ramp in the same day.
Hydrilla fragments that have been dried for 13 days on a carpet bunk. Notice the green fragments within the yellow, dead fragments.
While the plant fragments that are exposed on your boat trailer will dry out as you travel from waterbody to waterbody, or back home, there is a concern about the fragments that are trapped between the boat hull and the bunk. The fragments that are trapped between the boat hull and the bunk may not fully dry out and may still be able to grow into new plant mats when you go to launch your boat next time. Current research has shown that the type of bunk material (bare wood, carpeted, or plastic slips) influences the time it takes to fully dry out the aquatic plant fragments that are crushed on the boat bunks.
How Long Can Aquatic Plant Fragments Survive?
Research has shown that in Florida’s cooler months (January through March) that after 14 days of drying, 100% of all hydrilla fragments remain viable that were crushed and dried on carpet, plastic, or bare wood bunks. In the warmer months (April through June), hydrilla fragments that were dried on carpeted bunks had 0% fragment viability after 14 days of drying as compared to 20% viability for bare wood bunks, and 100% fragment viability for plastic-covered bunks. Viability is the ability of the plant fragments to regrow following a drying period.
So, what does this mean for you? Take the time to clean your boat of any aquatic plant fragments before leaving the boat ramp, empty any live wells or bait pails at the boat ramp, and do not move aquatic organisms from one waterbody to another. Finally, if you chose not to remove any aquatic plant fragments, allow adequate time (at least 14 days in warmer temperatures) for the boat and bunks to adequately dry out and limit viable fragment transfer.
Are you interested in more information on how to prevent the spread of harmful aquatic plants and other species? Visit Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers.
This blog post was written by Taylor Darnell, UF/IFAS CAIP graduate student. This post features research and information from his graduate research project and thesis. Questions or comments can be sent to the UF/IFAS CAIP communications manager at caip@ifas.ufl.edu. Follow UF/IFAS CAIP on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Subscribe for more blogs like this one.
UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. Turning Science Into Solutions.
Did you find this post helpful? Click the heart below!

Aquatic Plants and How They Spread Two things are a given in Florida: hot, humid weather and lots of boat traffic. Have you ever looked over the side of a boat and seen a thick, dark green mat of plant material underwater the water or touching the surface? Chances are, you have. What you saw […]

Stop Those Plants! How You Can Prevent the Spread of Invasive, Aquatic Plants

Aquatic Organisms

Aquatic

Organismos acuáticos 

Plants

Plantas

Wetlands

Humedales

<h3>Aquatic Plants</h3>
Plants that grow in water either floating on the surface, growing up from the bottom of the body of water or growing under the surface of the water. [NALT] 
Any microscopic or macroscopic vegetal organism living in the aquatic environment, excluding bacteria and viruses. [AGROVOC]
<h3>Wetland Plants</h3>
Plants adapted for survival in soils frequently saturated with surface or groundwater. [NALT]

Rohal, Christine B.

Enloe, Stephen F.

Prince, Candice

Water Hyacinth

Manejo de jacinto de agua 

Seagrasses are flowering vascular plants that live completely submerged in shallow oceanic and estuarine waters. [NALT]
Species of embryophytes living in marine coastal waters. Flowering plants (angiosperms) that colonised the sea. They are the only flowering plants that can live under seawater and are not related to seaweeds. [AGROVOC]

Seagrasses

Browse AskIFAS Terms

Organisms

Organismos

Features

Características 

Interaction of living organisms with the physical or chemical environment in a body of water.

Aquatic and Wetland Plants

Aquatic Plants

Wetland Plants

Narrower Topics

Aquatic Weeds

Aquatic Weed Herbicides

Native Aquatic and Wetland Plants

Seagrasses

Water Hyacinth

Publications

A Beginner's Guide to Water Management—Aquatic Plants in Florida Lakes

A Comparison of Planting Techniques for Submerged Aquatic Vegetation

Common Wetland and Aquatic Plants of Lake Apopka, Florida (USA)

Florida-Friendly Plants for Stormwater Pond Shorelines

Freshwater Ornamental Aquatic Plant Production in Florida

Nelumbo nucifera Lotus, Sacred Lotus

Nymphaea x 'Attraction' Attraction Hardy Water Lily

Pondweeds of Florida

The Ecology of Charophyte Algae (Charales)

Watercress—Nasturtium officinale R. Br.

Related IFAS Blog Posts

Why are plants important to aquatic ecosystems?

Post-Doc Perspective: From the Rainforest to the Swamp

Stop Those Plants! How You Can Prevent the Spread of Invasive, Aquatic Plants

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Aquatic Organisms

Plants

Wetlands

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