The Araceae are a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants in which flowers are borne on a type of inflorescence called a spadix. The spadix is usually accompanied by, and sometimes partially enclosed in, a spathe. Also known as the arum family, members are often colloquially known as aroids. This family of 140 genera and about 4,075 known species is most diverse in the New World tropics, although also distributed in the Old World tropics and northern temperate regions.
Salvinia molesta, commonly known as giant salvinia, or as kariba weed after it infested a large portion of Lake Kariba between Zimbabwe and Zambia, is an aquatic fern, native to south-eastern Brazil. It is a free-floating plant that does not attach to the soil, but instead remains buoyant on the surface of a body of water. The fronds are 0.5–4 cm long and broad, with a bristly surface caused by the hair-like strands that join at the end to form eggbeater shapes. They are used to provide a waterproof covering. These fronds are produced in pairs also with a third modified root-like frond that hangs in the water. It has been accidentally introduced or escaped to countless lakes throughout the United States, including Caddo Lake in Texas, where the invasive species has done extensive damage, killing off other life.
Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments. They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that grows in or near water and is either emergent, submergent, or floating. In lakes and rivers macrophytes provide cover for fish, substrate for aquatic invertebrates, produce oxygen, and act as food for some fish and wildlife.
Lemna is a genus of free-floating aquatic plants referred to by the common name "duckweed". They are morphologically divergent members of the arum family Araceae. These rapidly growing plants have found uses as a model system for studies in community ecology, basic plant biology, ecotoxicology, and production of biopharmaceuticals, and as a source of animal feeds for agriculture and aquaculture. Currently, 14 species of Lemna are recognised.
Spirodela is a genus of aquatic plants, one of several genera containing plants commonly called duckweed. Spirodela species are members of the Araceae under the APG II system. They were formerly members of the Lemnaceae.
The Potamogetonaceae, commonly referred to as the pondweed family, is an aquatic family of monocotyledonous flowering plants. The roughly 110 known species are divided over six genera. The largest genus in the family by far is Potamogeton, which contains about 100 species.
Azolla cristata , the Carolina mosquitofern, Carolina azolla or water velvet, is a species of Azolla native to the Americas, in eastern North America from southern Ontario southward, and from the east coast west to Wisconsin and Texas, and in the Caribbean, and in Central and South America from southeastern Mexico (Chiapas) south to northern Argentina and Uruguay.
Lemna minor, the common duckweed or lesser duckweed, is a species of aquatic freshwater plant in the subfamily Lemnoideae of the arum family Araceae. L. minor is used as animal fodder, bioremediator, for wastewater nutrient recovery, and other applications.
Utricularia radiata, the little floating bladderwort, is a medium-sized suspended aquatic carnivorous plant that belongs to the genus Utricularia. U. radiata is endemic to North America.
Lemna trisulca L. is a species of aquatic plants in the arum family Araceae. It has a subcosmopolitan distribution. Unlike other duckweeds, it has submerged rather than floating fronds, except when flowering or fruiting. Also unlike other duckweeds, a large number of fronds remain attached to each other at a time.
Spirodela polyrhiza is a species of duckweed known by the common names common duckmeat, greater duckweed, great duckmeat, common duckweed, and duckmeat. It can be found nearly worldwide in many types of freshwater habitat.
Wolffia arrhiza is a species of flowering plant known by the common names spotless watermeal and rootless duckweed, belonging to the Araceae, a family rich in water-loving species, such as Arum and Pistia. It is the smallest vascular plant on Earth. It is native to Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia, and it is present in other parts of the world as a naturalized species.
Wolffia globosa is a species of flowering plant known by the common names Asian watermeal and duckweed. It is native to Asia and is found in parts of the Americas and Africa, where it is an introduced species. It grows in mats on the surface of calm, freshwater bodies, such as ponds, lakes, and marshes. It is a very tiny, oval-shaped plant with no leaves, stems, or roots. The body of the plant, a transparent green frond, is less than a millimeter wide. In one human experiment, processed W. globosa was reported to provide dietary protein and vitamin B12.
Limnocharis flava is a species of aquatic flowering plant which is native to Mexico, Central America, South America, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic but widely naturalized in southern and southeastern Asia: India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and southern China.
Lemnoideae is a subfamily of flowering aquatic plants, known as duckweeds, water lentils, or water lenses. They float on or just beneath the surface of still or slow-moving bodies of fresh water and wetlands. Also known as bayroot, they arose from within the arum or aroid family (Araceae), so often are classified as the subfamily Lemnoideae within the family Araceae. Other classifications, particularly those created prior to the end of the twentieth century, place them as a separate family, Lemnaceae.
Salvinia minima is a species of aquatic, floating fern that grows on the surface of still waterways. It is usually referred to as common salvinia or water spangles. Salvinia minima is native to South America, Mesoamerica, and the West Indies and was introduced to the United States in the 1920s–1930s. It is classified as an invasive species internationally and can be detrimental to native ecosystems. This species is similar to but should not be confused with giant salvinia, Salvinia molesta.
Lemna aequinoctialis, the lesser duckweed, is a tiny, floating aquatic plant in the aroid family, found in quiet, still waters of the Southern U.S., as well as México and some Caribbean Islands. Additionally, it can be found from the state of Virginia south through Florida, north to Nebraska and even into southern Wisconsin. It is also widespread in the American Southwest, from Texas to the coast of California, preferring lagoons and still ponds, which it accesses via seasonal flooding and occasional precipitation. Fronds are generally triple-nerved, green, and measure up-to 6 mm long. Flowers are single-ovulate, with a small utricular scale open on one side. Seeds have 8–26 ribs.
Lemna turionifera is a species of flowering plant belonging to the family Araceae.
Bolshoy Yeravna is a fresh water body in the Yeravninsky District, Buryatia, Russia.
