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Dotted duckweed (Landoltia punctata)

Dotted duckweed Common Names: Dotted duckmeat

Description: Introduced to North America as an aquarium plant.

Habit: Tiny, free-floating aquatic plant comprised of individual fronds that produce fine roots, forms dense mats in stagnant water.

Leaves: Fronds appear 1.5 to 2 times longer than wide, with widths measuring from 1-3 (or 5) mm, narrowly egg-shaped to slightly kidney-shaped and intensely green in color, covered with a waxy layer of cuticle that makes plants sparkle in the sunlight. Fronds are not leaves; they may be a reduced form of stem and shoot.

Fruit and seeds: Fruits are 0.8-1 mm, laterally winged to apex. Seeds with 10-15 distinct ribs.

Habitat: Native to Africa and southeast Asia. Grows well in small, quiet, nutrient rich waters such as ponds, ditches, swamps and backwaters; also seasonally intermittent waters.

Reproduction: Vegetative budding of daughter fronds from two pouches at the base of the frond. Daughter fronds often remain attached to the mother frond by a short stipe so that plants often appear as a cluster of several fronds. Rarely reproduces by seed.

Similar species: Native giant duckmeat (Spirodela polyrrhiza).

Monitoring and rapid response: Diquat is a widely used and effective herbicide because it causes ion leakage in duckweed and other aquatic plants. May also be controlled by the use of Carfentrazone-ethyl 224g/ha Super (-1). Follow label and state requirements.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from the ISSG Global Invasive Species Database and USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org).Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).


Common Name:

Dotted duckweed

Scientific Name:

Landoltia punctata

Family:

Lemnaceae
(Duckweed)

Duration:

Perennial

Habit:

Aquatics

USDA Symbol:

LAPU12