Review

Water or dry land − that is not a question for amphibious plant species

Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

^* Corresponding author: mateja.germ@bf.uni-lj.si

Received: 13 June 2024
Accepted: 11 December 2024

Abstract

Amphibious plants attract much attention due to their unique ability to live in aquatic and terrestrial environments and sustain abrupt changes of water regime in the habitat. They may colonise habitats with pronounced water level fluctuations and water /dry land interface areas. Water and air differ in many aspects, like density, buoyancy, light and thermal conditions, as well as humidity and diffusion of gases, including oxygen and carbon dioxide, that all affect plant growth and development. The evolution of amphibious plant species resulted in high phenotypic plasticity that is manifested as a variety of ecophenes performing optimally in contrasting conditions. The most important adaptations are heterophylly and/or different life forms that differ at morphological, anatomical, biochemical, and physiological levels. These adaptations comprise the wide span of traits that are found in submerged and terrestrial plant species. The plasticity of amphibious plant species offers a potential to colonise water bodies where hydrology is affected by climate changes and present a unique model system where different scientific aspects of plants may be studied in genetically identical specimens.