Duckweed is a valuable source of vitamins, minerals and fatty acids. People use it for food, use it in folk medicine and agriculture, and you can even find it in a swamp. What is duckweed? How does she look? Where does duckweed grow? Let's try to answer these questions.
What is duckweed?
In Russia, cassocks were called strands of necklaces, on which pearls and beads were densely planted. A plant called duckweed resembles them somewhat. It exists in colonies, where many small individuals are closely connected with each other. The size of one plant usually does not exceed a centimeter.
The duckweed on water forms a dense green layer. It belongs to the Aroid family - aquatic monocotyledonous plants. The duckweed does not have a pronounced stem; its vegetative body is represented by a leaf similar to a plate. Many other small plates are attached to the leaf from the sides, and the root is attached from below. Duckweed plates are thick, fleshy, painted light green above, and white or yellowish below. They are brilliant, sometimes have red spots. The shape of the plate is elongated or oval. Some species have absolutely no roots. In others, they move away from the records. The roots are thin, not branched, look like long single or bundled threads.
Plant features
Duckweed is an aquatic plant. It does not cling to the bottom with its roots, but simply floats in the upper layers of water. Despite its tiny size, the plant is able to bloom and bear fruit. This is extremely rare. White or yellow flowers are not too expressive and collected in inflorescences, and the fruits form in the form of bags. There are about ten different species of plants, among them duckweed, humpback, small, ternate, common rooted, etc. Almost all of them are perennial and differ from each other in the form of leaves, the period of reproduction, the number and type of roots.
The best temperature for duckweed is 20-28 degrees. Although it can exist normally, it can range from 6 to 33 degrees Celsius. At a favorable time, the pond where duckweed grows can be completely covered by this plant. She can’t stand the cold and can die. In winter, forms a kidney-turion. It contains a lot of starch and is heavier than water, so it sinks to the bottom, waiting for bad times. In the spring, the kidney rises to the surface and continues the life cycle.
Where does duckweed grow?
Duckweed is common on all continents of the Earth, except Antarctica. The plant prefers places with a warm and humid climate, but also exists in temperate regions. There duckweed, most likely, came with the help of animals and eventually naturalized. It can be found in 42 states of the USA, in the countries of Northern, Central, Southern and Eastern Europe, in the Caucasus, in Central and Western Asia, in various parts of Africa (except the central ones), on the Hindustan Peninsula, in the Canary and Azores.
Places where duckweed grows are ponds with stagnant fresh water. She appears in swamps, some lakes and ponds. The plant appears even in decorative ponds. On the water, duckweed quickly grows like a weed, and it is extremely difficult to get out of a reservoir. To get rid of it, use various water filters or run ducks into the pond that eat duckweed.
Application
Marsh duckweed can feed on many animals, for example, waterfowl, lizards, frogs, newts. They carry the plant hundreds of kilometers from its native reservoir. A man uses duckweed in economic activities and traditional medicine. In agriculture, the plant is specially grown and mixed into feed for cattle, pigs and poultry. It is also used to purify water in ponds, elders and other bodies of water. It is used to detect various substances in water. So, duckweed is very sensitive to chlorine and at its smallest concentrations ceases to grow, and at a high content it dies.
In tropical countries, this aquatic plant is eaten. In our area, they are more often interested in using them in folk recipes. At home, duckweed can be used in aquariums as a water purifier and as a food for fish.
Beneficial features
Swamp duck and other plant species contain a large amount of fatty acids, protein, flavonoids, carotenoids and tannins. The plant is rich in vitamins of group B, PP, vitamin C and E. It also has many minerals that are important for the development of the body. So, in duckweed there is iodine, bromine, phosphorus, silicon, copper, iron, zinc. With strong heat, duckweed can reduce body temperature, increase the body's defenses. It is used as a remedy against helminths and other parasites, to strengthen the body. Small duckweed has analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties.
In addition to human benefits, grass has other properties. During photosynthesis, it releases a lot of oxygen and saturates it with a body of water. At the same time, it accumulates and processes phosphorus and heavy metals discharged by enterprises. These abilities of the plant are used to treat heavily contaminated wastewater, as well as to improve the quality of domestic drinking water.
