Lemnaceae
Read about Lemnaceae in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
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Lemnaceae (from the genus Lemna, an old Greek name of uncertain origin). Duckweed Family. Fig. 10. Tiny aquatic plants floating or submerged, the plant body reduced to an oval or oblong, flat or globular thallus, which multiplies rapidly by marginal buds, and may or may not bear 1 or more roots on the under side: flowers unisexual, naked, monoecious; the staminate consisting of 1 stamen; the pistillate of 1 flask-shaped, 1-celled pistil, with several ovules; the latter orthotropous or anatropous, the micropyle transformed into a cap: fruit a several-seeded utricle. There are 3 genera and about 25 species, distributed over the whole earth, except the arctics. The family is related to the Araceae, from which it is supposed to have degenerated. The flowers, which rarely occur, are borne in minute pits in the edge or upper surface of the thallus, either 1 staminate and 1 pistillate, or 2 staminate and 1 pistillate together; in some genera provided with a spathe corresponding to the spathe in the Araceae. The roots, when present, are balancing organs to resist the upsetting of the plant by the waves. Wolffia is the tiniest flowering plant, the whole plant sometimes in size only half the diameter of a pinhead. By the very rapid vegetative multiplication of some species, ponds are often completely covered with a green coating, and these plants may then become of economic importance. Lemna and Spirodela are often grown in aquaria.CH
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References
- Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
External links
- w:Lemnaceae. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
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