ABSTRACT
Many wetland species, such as yellow water lily, white water lily, and Amazon water lily from the Nymphaeacean family, sacred lotus from the Nelumbonacean family, or fringed water Uly and floating heart from the Menyanthacean family are cultivated in lakes and constructed ponds as ornamental plants. These plants supply their rhizomes and roots growing in the anoxic sediments of the lake with atmospheric oxygen to sustain growth activities in submerged organs. But distances of up to 4 m, which oxygen must travel from ambient air through the aerenchyma of the plant to buried parts, is too far to create a sufficiently high oxygen level by oxygen diffusion alone. The ecological significance of a thermoosmotic gas transport system for plants inhabiting aqueous environments lies in the increase in supply of oxygen to the root and rhizome apices.
