Rheophytes of the World

An Account of the Flood-Resistant Flowering Plants and Ferns and the Theory of Autonomous Evolution

C.G.G.J. Van Steenis (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

424 Seiten

2012 | Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1981
Springer (Verlag)
978-94-009-8590-2 (ISBN)

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Already as a teenager I had become acquainted with rheophytes, during swimming exercises between Utrecht and Bunnik in the 'Kromme Rijn', an ancient, then canalized course of the river Rhine, where a submerged waterplant occurred gregariously in dense stands on the sandy bottom. In the rather swift current of the then very clear water, its long, linear, ribbon shaped blades floated gracefully in serpentine fashion. We never found it in flower. At times the stands became so dense that the 'rugt' (all subaquatic weed growth) was mowed by scythe from shallow-bottom 'punters', in order to remove this obstacle to water traffic. It was never seen in stagnant water of the ditches in the meadows of the valley. After entering the University, with the purpose of devoting my further life to the study of botany, my attention was roused by the research subject of our professor F.A.F.C. Went, who became my tutor and mental father. As far as his free time was available - and that was precious little because he primarily devoted himself to tuition of students and promovendi besides administration of the botany department - he tried to study the morphology, anatomy and physiology of the Podostemaceae, of which tropical cascade plants he had made large collections and observations in Surinam.

1. Introduction.- a. Descent of mountain plants along rivers.- b. Definition of a rheophyte.- c. The rheophytes as a biological group.- d. Parallel development in adaptive features.- e. How to recognize rheophytes? — The sources.- f. Rheophytes in drought areas.- g. Census of rheophytic plants 9 — Swift-running water 10 — Riparian plants 10 — Riparian rheophytes 11 — Rare rheophytes 11 — Facultative rheophytes 11 — Completeness 12.- h. Plan of the work.- 2. The Habitat.- I. The Climate.- II. The Medium.- III. The Substratum.- 3. Morphology and Ecology.- I. Hydrophytic Rheophytes.- II. Torrenticolous Rheophytes.- III. Rheophytic Landplants.- 4. Distribution of Rheophytes.- a. Geographical survey of the literature.- b. Latitude and altitude of rheophytes: Latitude 67 — Altitude 68.- c. Rheophytes in seasonal and drought zones: Seasonal climate 69 Drought climate 69.- d. Rheophytes and bedrock.- e. Systematic arrangement of the rheophytes.- f. Geographical arrangement of the rheophytes.- g. Endemism in rheophytes.- h. Rheophytes in oceanic islands.- i. Largest ranges among the rheophytes.- j. Rheophytes and palaeogeography.- k. Sociology of the rheophytes.- 5. Cultivation of Rheophytes.- Rheophytes as useful plants.- 6. Why are Rheophytes confined to Streambeds?.- 7. The Riddle of the Willow-like Leaf-shape.- Narrow leaves not peculiar to rheophytes.- Relative importance of the willow-like leaf-shape.- Constancy of the leaf-index.- The willow-like leaf function for least resistance.- Experimental measurement of resistance to currents.- Deductions from the measurements in Table 3.- Conclusions from the experiments.- 8. Autonomous Evolution and the Derivation of the Rheophytes.- Scarcity of rheophytes in the plant world.- Parallel development.- Pre-disposedstructures for development of rheophytes.- Gradual speciation by raciation.- Population divergence in facultative rheophytes.- Differentiation of rheophytic varieties.- The infra-specific taxa of rheophytes.- Specific segregation.- Infrageneric and generic segregation.- Rheophytes exemplary of parallel evolution.- Adaptation, a selection process of passive pruning in autonomous evolution.- Differences between plant and animal evolution.- Survival level, patio ludens, and neutral characters.- Patio ludens and ‘pre-adaptations’ in plants.- Early differentiation.- Saltatory evolution in plants.- Gliding evolution in animals.- Co-evolution of plants and animals 126 — Reticulate phylogeny 132 — Concluding remarks 133.- The neutral characters of patio ludens in plants.- Evolution, an erratic array of results from experiments by Nature.- 9. Bibliography.- 10. Glossary.- 11. Census of the Rheophytes of the World.- Indices and Errata.

Zusatzinfo	424 p.
Verlagsort	Dordrecht
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 244 mm
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Botanik
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Evolution
ISBN-10	94-009-8590-8 / 9400985908
ISBN-13	978-94-009-8590-2 / 9789400985902
Zustand	Neuware