Naiad

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Naiad (lat. Najas) - a large genus of perennial and annual plants of the Vodokrasovye family. Previously, the genus was ranked as a separate family of the same name, the Nayadovs. In nature, it is found mainly in tropical countries, some species grow in the Arctic and Eurasia. Typical habitats are seaside lagoons, salt lakes, brackish water bodies, rice fields, volcanic lakes, fresh water bodies.

Characteristics of culture

Naiad is represented by perennial and annual plants with fragile, highly branched stems, which often break off, and then float on the surface of the water. The stems of some species are equipped with scattered thorns. Foliage can be linear, filiform, sessile, with a pronounced vein. This aspect depends on the species. The leaves of some species are very tough or, conversely, extremely fragile. In a small number of species, thorny thorns form on foliage.

As a rule, foliage is located in whorls of 1-3 pieces, has pronounced sheaths, jagged edges and blunt tips. The flowers are simple, inconspicuous, formed at the nodes of the stem, 1-4 pieces. They cannot be ranked as sedentary, only it seems so at first glance, in fact, they come from reduced lateral branches. The flowers of some species of naiads are endowed with bottle-shaped bedspreads. Moreover, the veil can be on both male and female flowers, and only on male flowers, such as the large naiad (lat. Najas major).

Naiad fruits are represented by non-expanding single-seeded pericarp. They can have different shapes, depending on the species, for example, ellipsoidal, narrow, ovate, broad-ovate, etc. Fruits of different species are united by the structure of the seed coat. It is cellular, with cells of different sizes and shapes.

Known species

Naiad flexible (lat. Najas flexilis) It is represented by annual plants with a flexible and brittle stem no more than 40 cm long. It is crowned with a linear, light green, toothed foliage along the edge with a toothed sheath, smoothly turning into a plate. The fruits of the species under consideration are narrow, no more than 1 mm wide. The species is common in Eurasia and North America. Prefers fresh water. In Russia, it grows in Altai.

Sea naiad (lat. Najas marina) represented by annual plants with a thin stem no more than 70 cm long. The foliage is oblong, linear, sessile, up to 5 cm long, collected in whorls. Fruits are elongated, but narrow, up to 3 mm wide. In nature, it grows mainly in Eurasia, North and South America. Prefers slightly salted and fresh waters. In Russia, the plant can be found on the Volga.

Small naiad (lat. Najas minor) It is represented by annual plants with a fragile stem no more than 25 cm long. It is characterized by narrow-linear, jagged foliage without thorns along the edge. Fruits are narrow ellipsoidal, no more than 0.5 mm wide. Grows in Africa, North America, Eurasia. Easily acclimatized in Siberia and the Far East. Prefers slightly saline and fresh water bodies.