The ventral surface is characterized by the presence of a positively
geotropic protrusion which has not been strictly designated
till now and we call it pseudoroot (hence placed taxonomically
under the section: Pseudorrhizae by Landolt; Landolt, 1986)
(Fig. 1a–c). In the mature fronds,the pseudorootis of varying length
depending on the culture conditions with a maximum length of
4 mm (Fig. 1a–c) and is positioned slightly more towards the anterior
side of the frond (Fig. 1c). It is devoid of root hairs and rootcap (Fig. 1c and h). It lacks stomata similar to the rest of the ventral
surface (Fig. 1h and i). In contrast to other places of collection,
the fronds collected from the lakes at Patan and Ambapur were
almost without any pseudoroot (Fig. 1j) on the ventral side giving
them a lenticular appearance. When cultured in the laboratory
in Steinberg medium, these fronds started to develop pseudoroot
within 24 h and grew longer over time depending on the culture
conditions similar to the ones shown in Fig. 1a–c.