COMMENTS ON MARSILEA
Habit
It is a hydrophilic or amphibious plant dwelling in the mud or Marshes and shallow pools with the help of roots.
Morphological structures.
i) Rhizome:
It possesses a slender, branched rhizome distinguished into nodes and internodes. It creeps on just beneath the surface of soil. It is dichotomously branched and is capable of indefinite growth in all directions even covering an area more than 25m away.
ii) Leaves:
The leaves are born alternately in two rows from the node of the upper surface of the creeping rhizome. The leaves when they are young show circinate vernation and remain covered with numerous multicellular hairs. The leaves of submerged plants possess long, weak, cylindrical flexible petioles with the leaflets floating on the water surface.
iii) Roots:
The primary roots are thin and short lived but soon get replaced by one or two adventitious roots borne on the underside of the rhizome Some adventitious roots may arise even from the internodal region.
