The majority of published surveys studying aquatic plant communities in the semiarid region of Brazil recorded less species than our study, with six studies recording less than 40 species. There were only two studies recording more species than our physiological work (Table 4). Among the published studies to date, mo stare florist surveys and only two (Mathias et al., 2003; Tabosa et al.,2012) present data on the structure of aquatic plant communities.