- Ditch with broad-leafed cattail, Ecomare
Freshwater flora
Just like in the sea, the most important plants in fresh water are the ones you can't see with the naked eye: the one-celled algae which float freely in the water. They form the base of the food chain for this kind of habitat. However, there are lots of aquatic plants that are visible without a microscope. Rush species and reed grow along the banks of stagnant water. Other waterside plants grow between the reed, such as purple loosestrife and calamus. Waterside plants capture dead plant material which eventually turn ditches, ponds and lakes into land.
On Texel
One of the unique landscape characteristics on Texel are the man-dug drinking pools found on the Hoge Berg. The water source is rainwater. Many of the pools are used for the grazing livestock, but long ago it was also the only source of drinking water for the inhabitants. Freshwater flora grows in these pools. During various inventories made between 1985 and 2008, the most interesting species growing in the less nutrient-rich pools were floating pondweed, various species of water-starwort, bog pondweed, lesser marshwort, water purslane, water-crowfoot and brackish water-crowfoot. Drinking pools are just about the only place on the island where both water-crowfoot species and lesser marshwort are found.
See also
- Brackish water-crowfoot
- Ditches (ecology)
- Lakes (ecology)
- Reed
Info
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