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Family: Hydrocharitaceae Life
> eukaryotes >
Archaeoplastida >
Chloroplastida
>
Charophyta > Streptophytina > Plantae (land plants)
> Tracheophyta (vascular plants) > Euphyllophyta > Lignophyta (woody plants)
> Spermatophyta (seed plants) > Angiospermae (flowering
plants) > Monocotyledons > Order: Alismatales
Freshwater or marine herbs. There are 18 genera and about
116 species (cosmopolitan), of which four genera and 11 species are indigenous to southern
Africa and one genus with one species is naturalised.
Genera native or naturalised (*) in southern Africa
List from Glen (2000).
* Egeria The 2 species are
native to subtropical and temperate South America. Egeria
densa has become naturalised in southern Africa and is a
declared Category 1 invasive plant in South Africa. |
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Halophila A total of nine
species, native to warm seas around the world. Halophila ovalis
occurs in coastal waters from KwaZulu-Natal to Knysna in the Western
Cape. |
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Lagarosiphon Nine species,
native to tropical Africa and Madagascar, with nine species native to
southern Africa. Lagarosiphon major has become naturalised in
Europe and New Zealand. |
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Ottelia A total of 21
species, native to the tropics and subtropics, with 4 occurring in
southern Africa. |
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Vallisneria The 4 species
occur mainly in the tropics and subtropics, with one species, Vallisneria
aethiopica, native to southern Africa (northern Namibia and Botswana).
Has also been recorded, probably as an escape from aquaria, in Mpumalanga
and Cape Town. |
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Elodea canadensis (Canadian
water weed, Kanadese waterpes) is a
declared Category 1 invasive plant in South Africa.
Publications
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