Free Floating Plants

Cloze Reading Passage:
Answer Key

 

line drawing of duckweedline drawing of water lettuceline drawing of free floating plant

 

 

Name: ________________________________________________________

Class Period:______________________ Date:______________________

 

Free-floating plants are not anchored in the sediment; they get their nutrients directly from the water.Free-floating plants include duckweeds and some bladderworts.

Water lettuce and water hyacinth are free-floating plants but they also happen to be extremely invasive in Florida waters.

Water hyacinth is considered "the worst aquatic weed in the world" because it has invaded the waterways of many countries.When conditions are right, water hyacinth or water lettuce grow extremely well and are capable of completely covering the surface of a waterbody.This can cause major habitat, recreational, navigational and flood control problems.

Nature gave us very few free-floating plants compared to the number of submersed plants that exist in the world.

 

 

Word Bank

anchored       weed           bladderworts        covering

flood                 Florida         free-floating     submersed

 

 


For more information and photos of free-floating plants: http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/guide/natplant.html#natfloat

Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants, UF/IFAS

A collaboration of the UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants
and the Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Invasive Plant Management.
UE/EA 6/08/06
SSS: SC.F.1.2, SC.F.2.2, SC.G.1.2, SC.G.2.2, SC.H.1.2, SC.H.3.2, LA.A.1.2