Question

Hydrophily occurs in?
a. Nymphaea
b. Nelumbo
c. Eichhornia Crassipes
d. Vallisneria/Zostera

Answer 1

The male flowers which are suspended on the surface of the waterfall into the cup and because of a jerk, the anthers dehisce and pollens are shifted to the stigma and therefore, pollination occurs on the plane of the water. In other cases, the female flower produces a long structure from the stylar stigmatic region which extends to the water surface.

Complete answer:
The pollination of flowers using water is known as hydrophily. Pollen grains are enclosed by mucilaginous covering, therefore shielded from wetting. Stigma is extended, sticky, and unwettable.

In Zostera, long needle-shaped pollens are formed which float in the water. The female flower makes a long structure and loops around the pollen grain and drags it underwater and therefore, pollination occurs.

In Vallisneria, the male flowers disconnect on maturity and glide on the surface of the water while the female flowers rise underwater and they come up to the surface with the aid of their thin long stalk. For this reason, hydrophily occurs in Vallisneria and Zostera.

Hence, the correct answer is option (D).

Additional information:
Eichhornia Crassipes in their inhabitant range, flowers are pollinated by long-tongued bees and they can replicate by sexually as well as clonally.
New flowers get produced vegetatively by its wide rhizomes and fibrous root organization; also by seeds in species of nelumbo.

Pollen is circulated by the flow of waters. The trait of a nymphaea is that it does not re-pollinate, increasing by it. They consist of the male and female parts of reproduction but self-pollination does not occur which means they are a "type of hydrophyte" which doesn't exhibit the feature of hydrophilic.

Note: Hydrophily occurs underneath the surface of the water. E.g. Zostera. The plants which are hydrophilic are not able to grow without water. The pollen grains present on these are light weighted and dry. As the plants need water to grow so the pollen grain mainly distributes in the water streams.