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Lemna gibba
Also called Fat duckweed, Gibbous duckwee, Inflated Duckweed, Gibbous Duckweed, Duck's Meat, Frog Buttons, Thick Duckweed
Swollen duckweed is a tiny free-floating aquatic plant that forms green mats on still or slow water. It is grown mainly in ponds and aquaria, and it needs still water and plenty of sun.
Lemna gibba, the gibbous duckweed, swollen duckweed, or fat duckweed, is a species of Lemna (duckweed). It has a simple plant body, known as a thallus, which floats on the surface of the water and measures 3–5 mm (0.12–0.20 in) 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 is in temperate areas in Europe, including Britain, to the Himalayas, Africa, South America, 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.
Lesser duckweed · Common duckweed · Least duckweed · Minute duckweed · Star duckweed · Turion duckweed · Valdivia duckweed · Plants
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lemna gibba 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.
