The lake is among one of the biggest bird sanctuaries in the rift and homeland for several hundred species of water birds, including local and palaearctic migrants with large population of Marabou storks. The littoral and open water of the lake is dominated by wide-ranging delivery of 'qetema' (Cyperaceae), 'fila' (Typha sp.), the floating grass Paspalidium germina-tum and hydrophytes such as the Blue water lily (Nymphaea coerulea), water cabbage (Pistia stratiotes) and Wolfia arrhiza, considered to be the smallest flowering plant in the world.(Tilahun et al., 1996, EFASA-2013). The littoral area is covered with emergent and submerged macrophytes those serve as shelter, thrashing and proliferation zones for several benthonic and pelagic zoo-planktons such as Protozoans, Rotifers, Crustaceans, and several weed bed fauna like annelids, insects as well as fishes. Scores of species with sundry forms of plants, animals and microorganisms make the lake extremely bio-diverse. The sum totalities of aquatic and terrestrial habitats adjoining the lake facilitate for the rich diversity of flora and fauna compared to other Ethiopian Rift valley lakes. Lake Hawassa is one of the many freshwater shallow lakes found in the central Ethiopian Rift Valley.
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