Isoetids are

aquatic plant Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that ...

s or

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

plants named for their superficial similarity to the quillworts, ''

Isoetes ''Isoetes'', commonly known as the quillworts, is the only extant genus of plants in the family Isoetaceae, which is in the class of lycopods. There are currently 192 recognized species, with a cosmopolitan distribution but with the individual sp ...

''. They occur in wetlands and on shorelines with low nutrient availability. Owing to their slow growth rates, they are also often found in areas with low rates of sediment deposition. Many have evergreen leaves, and

CAM Calmodulin (CaM) (an abbreviation for calcium-modulated protein) is a multifunctional intermediate calcium-binding messenger protein expressed in all eukaryotic cells. It is an intracellular target of the secondary messenger Ca2+, and the bin ...

photosynthesis.Boston, H. L. (1986). A discussion of the adaptation for carbon acquisition in relation to the growth strategy of aquatic isoetids. ''Aquatic Botany'', 26, 259–70. Often they are exposed during periods of low water. Common examples include ''

Lobelia dortmanna ''Lobelia dortmanna'', Dortmann's cardinalflower or water lobelia, is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae. This stoloniferous herbaceous perennial aquatic plant with basal leaf-rosettes and flower stalks grows ...

'' and ''

Eriocaulon ''Eriocaulon'' is a genus of about 400 species commonly known as pipeworts, of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Eriocaulaceae. The genus is widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group occurring in tropical regio ...

aquaticum''.

References

{{Reflist Aquatic plants