Alismatales

▪ plant order

Introduction

  arrowhead and pondweed order of flowering plants, belonging to the monocotyledon (monocot) group, whose species have a single seed leaf. Most of the some 4,500 species are aquatic and grow submersed or partially exposed to the air in marshes (marsh) and other freshwater and marine habitats, where they are treated as weeds (weed) that hinder irrigation and navigation. Although of little economic importance, these herbaceous (nonwoody) plants provide important habitats for fish and help stabilize shorelines. In particular, by forming complex communities with other aquatic and emergent stream-bank plants, they bring about vegetational succession: a pond may fill up with plant parts and silt to become a biological landfill, which eventually supports land plants. Several species commonly are used as ornamental aquarium plants.

Families

      There are 14 families, 166 genera, and about 4,500 species in the order Alismatales, which is broadly distributed throughout temperate and tropical regions with representatives on every continent except Antarctica. The 14 Alismatales families are Alismataceae, Limnocharitaceae, Butomaceae, Hydrocharitaceae, Aponogetonaceae, Scheuchzeriaceae, Juncaginaceae, Potamogetonaceae, Ruppiaceae, Posidoniaceae, Cymodoceaceae, Zosteraceae, Tofieldiaceae, and Araceae.

 The family Alismataceae occurs throughout the Americas, Asia, Australia, Africa, and Europe. Common genera include Sagittaria (arrowhead), Alisma ( water plantain), and Echinodorus ( burhead). Water plantain and arrowhead are most common in temperate regions, whereas burhead has its centre of distribution in the Neotropics (New World tropics). Limnocharitaceae consist of three genera, Butomopsis of the Paleotropics (Old World tropics) and Limnocharis and Hydrocleys (water poppy) of the Neotropics. Limnocharis has been introduced into the Asian tropics, however. Butomaceae, native to Europe and Asia, consists of one species, Butomus umbellatus ( flowering rush). The species has become naturalized in temperate North America.

  Hydrocharitaceae, the frog's-bit family, includes common genera such as Vallisneria (tape grass, or eelgrass), Elodea (waterweed), Ottelia, and Thalassia (turtle grass). Tape grass and waterweed are mostly found in temperate regions, although representatives of each occur in the tropics; tape grass is native to both the Eastern and Western hemispheres, and waterweed is native to the Western Hemisphere. Waterweed and Ottelia originated in the tropics, the former being native to South America and Ottelia having its centre of distribution in the Paleotropics. Turtle grass, Halophila, and Enhalus are marine seed plants; they typically occur to depths of 30 metres (about 100 feet) in clear, warm temperate and tropical waters throughout the world. Najas (water nymph), with more than 30 species, is a nearly cosmopolitan genus native to fresh or brackish waters worldwide. Members of the family, such as Egeria, Ottelia, waterweed, and tape grass, are important aquarium plants.

 The family Aponogetonaceae consists of one genus, Aponogeton (lattice plant), with 43 species that are native to the fresh waters of the Paleotropics and South Africa. Several species are used as aquarium plants. Scheuchzeria palustris, a circumpolar species that is frequently found in quaking bogs in the Northern Hemisphere, is the only species in the family Scheuchzeriaceae. A closely related family, the Juncaginaceae, is widespread in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, especially in colder climates. The family consists of four genera, the most widespread of which are Triglochin (arrow-grass) and Lilaea. Other than producing hydrogen cyanide, which occasionally poisons livestock, members of this family are of little economic importance.

      Potamogetonaceae has seven genera, the most important of which are Groenlandia, with the single species, G. densa, a native of western Europe; Potamogeton (pondweed), a cosmopolitan genus with about 60 species and the most important native plant in freshwater ecosystems, particularly in relation to food for aquatic animals; and the nearly cosmopolitan Zannichellia (horned pondweed). The other genera are native to the Mediterranean region, Australia, and South Africa. A few species are also important aquarium plants.

      Ruppiaceae consists of a single genus, Ruppia (ditch grass), which is essentially worldwide in aquatic systems that have a high mineral content, especially of sodium, calcium, or sulfur. R. maritima is a widespread coastal species that tolerates salt water or brackish water.

 Three of the five remaining families of the order, Posidoniaceae, Cymodoceaceae, and Zosteraceae, are small families of marine habitats. Posidonia, the only genus of the Posidoniaceae, is native to the Mediterranean and to coastal Australia. The family Cymodoceaceae contains five genera and is native to tropical and subtropical seacoasts around the world. In particular, Halodule and Syringodium are widespread in shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the western Atlantic Ocean. The family Zosteraceae is widely distributed in marine waters around the world. The family is most common in cold temperate waters of the Northern Hemisphere. The genera that make up the family are Zostera (eelgrass), which is nearly worldwide, Phyllospadix (surf grass), which is widely distributed throughout the northern Pacific Ocean, and Heterozostera, which is distributed in the temperate waters off the coasts of Australia and Chile.

      The Northern Hemisphere genus Tofieldia was formerly allied to the lilies and is the most prominent member of the family Tofieldiaceae. Although it is not aquatic in habitat, it is similar to the other members of the Alismatales in the possession of free carpels.

 The large family Araceae contains more than 4,000 species in 106 genera. There are seven recognized subfamilies: Gymnostachydoideae, Orontioideae, Lemnoideae, Potheae, Monstereae, Lasioideae, and Calloideae. Members of Araceae occur worldwide but are most common in the tropics; the family includes many climbers, as well as rooted or free-floating aquatics. Most members of the family have leaves with a distinct petiole and an expanded blade that is uncharacteristically reticulate among the monocots. The flowers are bisexual or unisexual and are densely packed onto a generally thickened spike (the spadix), and this is in turn accompanied or surrounded by a leafy or fleshy spathe. In the cultivated Anthurium, the spadix consists of bisexual flowers, whereas in the voodoo lily (Amorphophallus konjac), the spadix consists of three parts: a basal section with female flowers, a central portion with male flowers, and a long sterile tip that produces the characteristic odour of rotting flesh upon maturing. Common genera include Arum (such as cuckoopint [Arum maculatum]), Arisaemia (such as jack-in-the-pulpit [Arisaemia triphyllum]), Colocasia (such as taro [Colocasia esculenta]), and Philodendron (such as heart-leaf philodendron [Philodendron scandens oxycardium]). Water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) and the extremely reduced duckweeds (Lemna and its relatives) are specialized aquatic members of the family.

Order characteristics

      One characteristic alone holds most of the order together, that being the method of endosperm development. Endosperm, the food source of the developing embryo, originates from a process essentially unique to flowering plants that is called double fertilization.

      The two main paths of endosperm development are cellular and nuclear. In cellular development, the triploid cell divides to produce two new cells, each with a nucleus surrounded by a cell wall. This process continues until the embryo sac is filled with cellular endosperm. Nuclear endosperm development results when the triploid cell divides quite rapidly by nuclear division but is not followed immediately by cytokinesis (cytoplasmic division). Nuclear division continues until the entire embryo sac is filled with nuclei that are not surrounded by cell walls. Cytokinesis begins once nuclear division nears completion and continues until all nuclei are surrounded by cell walls. Alismatales endosperm development is usually helobial, a combination of the two major types.

      Some members of the Alismatales (Alismataceae, Butomaceae, Limnocharitaceae) generally produce bisexual flowers with obvious perianth structures; when unisexual, both staminate and carpellate flowers are produced on the same plant (monoecious). The flowers are aerial and produced in whorls or umbels on erect or floating axes. The flowers have attractive, though occasionally small, petals and are usually pollinated by flies, beetles, and butterflies.

      The family Hydrocharitaceae is unique in the order in having flowers with an inferior ovary; the ovary itself is composed of several united carpels. The flowers are either bisexual or unisexual; species with unisexual flowers may be either monoecious or dioecious (different sexes on different plants). Flowers usually develop on stalks that originate in the leaf axes. These flowers are often solitary on the axis, with only a few axes producing flowers on a plant. Such flowers may be either aerial or floating. Occasionally, however, flowers are enclosed within one fleshy modified leaf or two connate leaves, called a spathe, which is produced on a stalk (peduncle) from a leaf axis. These peduncles often arise from basal leaves that are attached to the system at the substrate in several metres of water; such a peduncle elongates until it is at the surface of the water. Other peduncles are very short so that the flowers develop entirely underwater.

      Pollinating mechanisms in the Hydrocharitaceae range from simple transfer of pollen by insects to quite elaborate transfer mechanisms in which water is the transfer vector. Species with aerial flowers are principally pollinated by insects or occasionally by wind. Insects are also thought to have a role in pollination even for the showy floating flowers of Ottelia. Some individuals of this genus, and probably of others, are known to accomplish self-pollination in the bud. The flowers subsequently open fully.

      Pollinating mechanisms are often much more elaborate, however, for the majority of species that have floating or submersed flowers, with water generally being important to some degree in pollen transfer. These species usually have fairly small, inconspicuous flowers, many if not most of which are imperfect. Generally, though not universally, in species with imperfect floating flowers, the staminate flowers are produced below the surface of the water on one or more short peduncles. The carpellate flowers float on the water's surface, attached usually by elongated peduncles. The weight of the carpellate flower and the downward pressure on the flower caused by the pull of the peduncles result in a very slight depression (or meniscus) in the surface of the water on which the flower floats. When the pollen matures, the staminate peduncle breaks, and the staminate flower or spathe with the enclosed staminate flowers rises to the surface of the water. As the flower or spathe reaches the water's surface, the change in water pressure causes the flower or spathe (or both) to open, with the perianth becoming almost reflexed. This opening of the staminate flower results in the flower essentially floating on a “boat” formed by the reflexed perianth. The staminate flower is blown along the surface of the water by the wind, possibly eventually approaching a meniscus formed by a carpellate flower; the meniscus is important in pollen transfer. As the flower enters a meniscus, the staminate flower tips because of the lower water level in the meniscus, and pollen transfer is accomplished, either by contact between the anther and stigma or by pollen falling from the staminate flower onto the carpellate flower.

      In marine species of Hydrocharitaceae, the flowers are permanently submersed, and the plants are dioecious; pollen released from the staminate flowers adheres in chains, forming what is functionally one long pollen grain. These chains are suspended in the water and move along with the water current. (Elongate structures are much more likely to contact a stigma that is an individual grain.) Pollination is accomplished when one such chain contacts a stigma.

Economic value

      The nutritional value of plants from the Alismatales order in the modern world is insignificant. However, the underground storage organs are swollen with food reserves, and this carbohydrate source was once utilized by many different societies. In Asia, rhizomes (rhizome) (underground stem structures) of the arrowhead have been eaten both cooked and fresh, and in North America some Eskimos still make bread from dried and powdered rhizomes of Butomus umbellatus ( flowering rush). In Java, juvenile plants of Limnocharis flava (yellow velvetleaf) are highly esteemed as a vegetable, and this species, together with Sagittaria trifolia (threeleaf arrowhead), also is collected and used as fertilizer and for cattle and pig fodder in tropical Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. Although these plants have no medicinal importance in the modern world, in medieval Europe some species were considered important and were featured in early herbals.

      Many plants of the Alismatales are decorative and have been used as ornamental models; S. trifolia, for example, appears as a motif in Japanese religious metalwork of the 16th century. Ornamental species are cultivated in formal pools, and arrowhead and flowering rush occur frequently in landscaped water gardens. Tropical species are much used with fish in aquariums for their aesthetic and biological values.

Paul E. Berry

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