15 Dic. 2015 - Roberto Dellavedova

Aquatic plants in our lakes

Presenta: Roberto Dellavedova

Free-lance botanist, Omegna

Aquatic vascular plants form an ecological rather than a taxonomic group and cannot be defined with any degree of precision; indeed, under some conditions almost any plants may be found in water. On the other hand, aquatic species are important as far as amphibious species (Preston & Croft, 2001). To reduce the scope of this discussion it is useful, as written by Beal (1977), to define aquatic and marsh plants as 'those plants which a typical terrestrial taxonomist does not collect for fear of getting his feet wet!'.
So we will attempt to bring to your knowledge those species that characteristically grow in water that persist throughout the year.
Many questions arise addressing this issue: How many and which aquatic plants can be found in our lakes? Where can we observe them? What are the major constraints of life in water? What kind of information does the environment provide? Were they more frequent in the past or today? Why should we study them? Which of our lakes is home of the highest aquatic plants diversity? We will try to discuss these and other questions.

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