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Spirodela polyrhiza
Also called Greater duckweed, Great duckmeat, Great duckweed, Water Flaxseed, Larger Duckweed, Common Duckmeat, Common Duckweed
Giant duckweed is a tiny floating aquatic plant that forms dense green mats on still or slow-moving fresh water. It grows best in nutrient-rich, sunny ponds and ditches, and is often grown in outdoor tanks for wastewater treatment and animal feed.
Spirodela polyrhiza (orth. var. S. polyrrhiza) is a species of duckweed known by the common names common duckmeat, greater duckweed, great duckmeat, common duckweed, giant duckweed, and duckmeat. It can be found nearly worldwide in many types of freshwater habitat.
Large scale cultivation is done in outdoor water tanks, mostly in connection with wastewater treatment. Tanks are fed with wastewater and the floating duckweed is harvested from the surface. It is then further used as a biofuel from industrial wastewater or as animal feed from agricultural wastewater treatment facilities.
Spirodela polyrhiza is found worldwide, namely in North America, Asia, more rarely in Central and South America, but also in Central Europe. It grows in tropical and temperate climates. It is not prevalent in New Zealand and only rarely in Australia.
Spirodela polyrhiza can be used for bioremediation, removing toxic substances from aquatic environment as well as cleaning eutrophic waters, especially in wastewater treatment plants. Its uses as biofuel and animal feed are also gaining importance. It is hardly used for human nutrition.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Spirodela polyrhiza 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.
