What adaptations has the water lily made in order to survive in its environment?
Terrestrial plants such as trees have to develop an enormous quantity of structural material in order to rise above all the other plants and collect the lion’s share of the light available. Water lilies provide a neat example of a plant which has managed to do exactly the same thing, but with the minimum of structural material. Weak stems produce a massive floating canopy of leaves which dominate the local aquatic plant community just as effectively as trees dominate in a woodland. The difference lies in their external medium. Water provides all the necessary support, whereas air does not.
