The role of the propagule bank in aquatic plant maintenance was studied in two riverine wetlands. Four sites were selected, characterized respectively by flooding, drying up, both disturbances operating, and neither operating. Our hypothesis was that recolonization after drying up would mostly involve seeds and buds from the propagule bank, whereas recolonization after floods would mostly involve rhizomes. Dry sites were characterized by a high density of seeds, and a high similarity between seed species and established vegetation. Unspecialized fragments remaining in wet parts of the sediment probably also contribute to species maintenance. Species maintenance in sites subjected to flooding was highly dependent on deeply anchored rhizomes, as indicated by the strong floristic similarity between species that occur in the established vegetation and rhizomes in the bank. Regeneration of the community after scouring floods also involved seeds, some species being able to flower under water. When scouring flooding and drying up were superimposed, regenerative strategies exhibited in the bank did not simply result from the ‘addition’ of the two disturbance effects. When the disturbances did not occur too closely together in time, species were able to survive either by: (1) producing many propagules under aquatic conditions or (2) coping with the temporal variability by producing several types of propagules.

Nomenclature: Lambinon et al. (1992); Wiegleb & Kaplan (1998) for Potamogeton species and Corillon (1975) for Characeae.