The Free-Floating Habit
| Free-floating plants can quickly cover a pond. Here is a village pond in China covered with Azolla. |
| Eichhornia can fill a watercourse. |
| Pistia stratiotes is a free-floating, rosette species. Note the inflorescence with its spathe and spadix. |
| Here is Eichhornia ,another rosette species, in flower. |
| Eichhornia is unusual because its secondary roots initiate from the endodermis instead of the pericycle. |
| Additional free-floating, rosette species are Hydrocharis morus-ranae, and Statiotes aloides. |
| The fern Ceratopteris exhibits a variable morphology as a free-floating rosette as seen here and also here. |
| Riccia fluitans is a free-floating aquatic liverwort consisting of numerous entwining thalli. |
| Fronds of the free-floating fern Azolla at 6.7 X and 40X. |
| A view of the top and bottom of a pinna of Salvinia. |
| Note the root-like structures which are really modified pinnae below the fronds of this Salvinia modesta. Also sporocarps are visible, which would be below the water surface. |
| Phyllanthus fluitans inhabits Venezuela and is a member of the Euphorbiaceae, which means that it is a relative of the Christmas Poinsettia. |
| Both Lemna and Wolffia are flowering plants. |
| Lemna exhibits anatomical and morphological reductions. |
| Some species of Utricularia are free-floating submerged plants. Here is Utricularia inflata in bloom. |
| All members of the genus Utricularia capture animals as a source for nitrogen. Here are the bladders of U. intermedia. |
| This is a longitudinal section of a bladder of Utricularia. |
| Utricularia photos |
| Aldrovanda photos |
