BOTANY
Green survivors
Water clovers can survive both underwater and in drought conditions.
Just like flowering plants, clover ferns too have evolved mechanisms for regulating their water balance. | Image: Alamy Stock
Water clovers always feel at home, whether they’re underwater or exposed to the sun in a dried-out pond. A team of researchers from the University of Zurich has been investigating the evolutionary tricks that enable them to do this. When it’s dry, this triggers their internal clock, which then coordinates the movement of their leaves and stomata so as to conserve water. Michael Kessler, who’s heading up the study, finds this fascinating: “These ferns have developed evolutionary solutions similar to those of flowering plants, but in a completely different way”.
