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Azolla nilotica is a small floating water fern from Africa, including the Nile, that fixes nitrogen through a symbiotic cyanobacterium in its leaves. It thrives in still, nutrient-rich, sunny water and is grown as a green fertilizer and livestock feed.
Azolla nilotica is a medium-sized floating fern, that naturally occurs in the Nile and in eastern and central Africa. It is assigned to the family Salviniaceae.
The species can be found in the eastern half of Africa, from southern Sudan, and South-Sudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Late Holocene fossil spores have been found in the Nile Delta, among Cyperus papyrus. It may have gone extinct with the demise of large areas of papyrus reeds, due to the reclaim of these swamps for agriculture.
Due to its high nitrate content, the plant is used as green fertilizer, like other Azolla species.
Carolina mosquitofern · Pacific mosquitofern · Mexican mosquitofern · Feathered mosquitofern · Azolla primaeva · Mosquitofern
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Azolla nilotica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
