Ceratophyllum

Ceratophyllum is a cosmopolitan genus of flowering plants including four accepted species in 2016,[3] commonly found in ponds, marshes, and quiet streams in tropical and in temperate regions. It is the only genus in the family Ceratophyllaceae,[2] itself the only family in the order Ceratophyllales.[4] They are usually called coontails or hornworts, although hornwort is also used for unrelated plants of the division Anthocerotophyta.

Ceratophyllum
Ceratophyllum submersum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Order: Ceratophyllales
Link[1]
Family: Ceratophyllaceae
Gray[1]
Genus: Ceratophyllum
L.
Species

See text

Synonyms[2]
  • Hydroceratophyllon Ség
  • Dichotophyllum Moench
  • Revatophyllum Röhl.

Ceratophyllum grows completely submerged, usually, though not always, floating on the surface, and does not tolerate drought. The plant stems can reach 1–3 m in length. At intervals along nodes of the stem they produce rings of bright green leaves, which are narrow and often much-branched. The forked leaves are brittle and stiff to the touch in some species, softer in others. The plants have no roots at all, but sometimes they develop modified leaves with a rootlike appearance, which anchor the plant to the bottom. The flowers are small and inconspicuous, with the male and female flowers on the same plant. In ponds it forms thick buds (turions) in the autumn that sink to the bottom which give the impression that it has been killed by the frost but come spring these will grow back into the long stems slowly filling up the pond.[5][6][7][8]

Hornwort plants float in great numbers just under the surface. They offer excellent protection to fish-spawn, but also to snails that are infected with Bilharzia. Because of their appearance and their high oxygen production, they are often used in freshwater aquaria.

Taxonomy

Ceratophyllum is considered distinctive enough to warrant its own family, Ceratophyllaceae. It was considered a relative of Nymphaeaceae and included in Nymphaeales in the Cronquist system, but recent research has shown that it is not closely related to Nymphaeaceae or any other extant plant family. Some early molecular phylogenies suggested it was the sister group to all other angiosperms, but more recent research suggests that it is the sister group to the eudicots. The APG III system placed the family in its own order, the Ceratophyllales.[1][2][9] The APG IV system accepts the phylogeny shown below:[4]

angiosperms
 

Amborellales

 
 
 

Nymphaeales

 
 
 

Austrobaileyales

 
 
 

magnoliids

 
 

Chloranthales

 
 
 

monocots

 
 
 

Ceratophyllales

 
 

eudicots

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Species

The subgeneric division of the genus Ceratophyllum into its appropriately recognized species, subspecies, and varieties is not settled. More than 30 species have been described and published. A narrow interpretation of this work rejects over 24 of these taxa as variants, accepting only 6 species. This narrow interpretation lumps to the point of failing to give these potential species the taxonomic importance of even being named on a subspecific or varietal level. The genus as narrowly defined in this manner contains the following six species:[2][5][6][10][11][12][13]

  • Ceratophyllum australe Griseb.
  • Ceratophyllum demersum L. (rigid/common hornwort) – cosmopolitan
  • Ceratophyllum echinatum A.Gray (spineless hornwort) – North America
  • Ceratophyllum muricatum Cham. (prickly hornwort) – Near-cosmopolitan
  • Ceratophyllum platyacanthum Cham. – Europe and Asia
  • Ceratophyllum submersum L. (soft/tropical hornwort) – Europe, Middle-East, Central Asia, northern and central Africa, Florida, and Dominican Republic
  • Ceratophyllum tanaiticum Sapjegin
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References
  1. Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (2): 105–121. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-05-25. Retrieved 2013-06-26.
  2. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  3. Christenhusz, M. J. M.; Byng, J. W. (2016). "The number of known plants species in the world and its annual increase". Phytotaxa. 261 (3): 201–217. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.261.3.1.
  4. Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2016). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG IV". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 181 (1): 1–20. doi:10.1111/boj.12385.
  5. Flora of China: Ceratophyllum
  6. Flora of North America: Ceratophyllum
  7. Blamey, M. & Grey-Wilson, C. (1989). Flora of Britain and Northern Europe. ISBN 0-340-40170-2
  8. Huxley, A., ed. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Macmillan ISBN 0-333-47494-5.
  9. Angiosperm Phylogeny Web: Ceratophyllales
  10. Germplasm Resources Information Network: Ceratophyllum
  11. Australian Plant Name Index: Ceratophyllum
  12. Flora Europaea: Ceratophyllum
  13. http://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:330840-2#children
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