Walk-About Wednesday

5 Hydrophobic Plants-The What and the Why

 

Water is a basic requirement of all living things in order to survive. If you’ve tried to raise a plant and neglected to water it, you know what it means for a living thing to be without water.

Your poor plant might go from looking like this-

to looking like this-

Can a plant have too much water?

Absolutely!

If your parents ask you to water the plants, and you water them too much, they can develop root rot and fungi on their leaves or stems. Not good.

What about plants that live in moist environments?

Like a wetland, such as a marsh

or in the rainforest?

How do they protect themselves from too much water so they don’t become the perfect home for a moisture-loving fungus?

Plants that repel water are called hydrophobic.

Hydro is the Greek word for water. Phobia is the Greek word for “ to fear or hate”.

Suppose you are afraid of spiders. Do you know what that is called?

Arachnophobia.

Fear of heights?

Acrophobia.

Fear of snakes?

Ophidiophobia.

If phobia means fear of, can you guess what arachno, acro, and ophidio mean? Figuring out the root meanings of words is so much fun and will help you when you take an advanced science class, or when you encounter vocabulary words you don’t know. I love it! But, that’s a subject for another day. Back to hydrophobic plants.

Here are some photographs of hydrophobic plants and their names.

The Lotus Plant

Lady’s Mantle

Nasturtium

Prickly pear

Bromeliads

Now you know what HYDROPHOBIC plants are and why. But HOW do they repel water?

Join me on next Wednesday’s Walk-about to find out HOW.

In the meantime, look at the photographs. What do you notice about the plants? How are they similar? How are they different?

Have a great week!

Peace,

Nature Mamaw

Illustrations are my originals. Photographs are courtesy of Pixabay.com.