Common Duckweed - Lemma minor

A floating perennial aquatic plant that forms a carpet over the whole surface of ponds and lakes. Widespread and locally common throughout the country. With a dangling root structure, the plant, it is not an algae, it multiplies by direct cell division or (vegetative growth), and in the right conditions is capable of completely covering a pond in a very short period (days). Clearing the weed only works for a short time as the remaining weed then has new space which it quickly re-fills. Over the last two years this has happened to Brickfields pond, the source could be from anywhere, on the feet of Ducks or Geese flying in from other sites, with water from "donated" frog spawn, Etc. This year our resident Swan and the Geese kept the Duckweed in check for quite some time but eventually lost the battle. In the warm weather the pond was covered within days. The only reliable eradication method is a spell of hard winter frost, freezing the top 30mm or so of the water column for ten days or more killing the plant.

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