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DUCKWEED

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 632 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DUCKWEED , the See also:

common botanical name for See also:species of Lemna which See also:form a See also:green coating on fresh-See also:water ponds and ditches. The See also:plants are of extremely See also:simple structure and are the smallest and least differentiated of flowering plants. They consist of a so-called " frond "—a flattened green more or less See also:oval structure which emits branches similar to itself from lateral pockets at or near the See also:base. From the under See also:surface a See also:root with a well-See also:developed sheath grows downwards into the water. The See also:flowers, which are rarely found in See also:Britain, are 2 Probably from " cuck," to void excrement; but variously connected with Fr. coquin, See also:rascal. developed in one of the lateral pockets. The inflorescence is a very simple one, consisting of one or two male flowers each comprising a single stamen, and a See also:female See also:flower comprising a See also:flask-shaped See also:pistil. The See also:order Lemnaceae to which they belong 1, Lemna See also:minor (Lesser See also:Duck- stamen, and a female flower, See also:weed) nat. See also:size. the whole enclosed in a 2, Plant in flower. sheath. 3, Inflorescence containing two 4, Wolffia arrhiza. male flcwers each of one (2, 3, 4 enlarged.) is regarded as representing a very reduced type nearly allied to the Aroids. It is represented in Britain by four species of Lemna, and a still smaller and simpler plant, Wolffia, in which the fronds are only one-twentieth of an See also:inch See also:long and have no roots.

End of Article: DUCKWEED

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