''Lemna gibba'', the gibbous duckweed, swollen duckweed, or fat duckweed, is a species of ''

Lemna ''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 ...

'' (duckweed). It has a simple plant body, known as a

thallus Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms ...

, which floats on the surface of the water and measures in diameter. A single root hangs down into the water. Found in a wide range of still or slow-flowing water bodies, this common duckweed can also grow on mud or damp rocks.

Distribution

Distribution is in temperate areas in Europe, including

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

, to the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

, and North America. This duckweed is one of Britain's most common small water plants, which forms familiar green mats covering stagnant water bodies. Widespread throughout Great Britain, but is absent from much of Scotland and Shetland. In Ireland, it is found mainly in the north and east. Elsewhere, the species has a very wide global distribution, absent only from polar areas and the tropics. Distribution information for this species can be accessed via th
Charms of Duckweed
(worldwide) an
National Biodiversity Network Gateway
(Britain only). This species spreads mainly through vegetative reproduction, but flowers are occasionally produced in shallow water exposed to full sun. When covering the entire surface of a pond, it can make the water appear solid, and in parts of the north-west of England, children were scared away from such ponds by the myth of Jenny Green-teeth, a pond elf or monster whose presence was indicated by duckweed; she was said to lure children into ponds and drown them.Grigson, G. (1996) The Englishman's Flora. Helicon, Oxford.

References

External links

Jepson Manual treatment for ''Lemna gibba''

Plants for a Future

ARKIVE - images of life on earth

Plantlife International - The Wild-Plant Conservation Charity

Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland
{{Taxonbar, from=Q157897 Lemnoideae Freshwater plants Flora of Europe Flora of Asia Flora of Africa Flora of South America Flora of North America Flora of Canada Flora of the Eastern United States Flora of the Western United States Flora of Colorado Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Flora of the Rocky Mountains Flora of California Flora of the California desert regions Flora of Central Mexico Flora of Lebanon Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora without expected TNC conservation status