Quick-Growing Duckweed Can Cleanse Water

Duckweed refers to species of free-floating, stemless aquatic plants touted for their uses in waste treatment, animal feed and pharmaceuticals.

Known by botanists under the family of Lemnaceae, duckweed is believed to be both the world’s smallest-flowering and fastest-growing plant.

It grows 20 times faster than corn, doubling in size within a few days through a natural cloning method. It can tangle the lines of recreational fishermen casting in still, freshwater areas where the plants thrive.

North Carolina is a common habitat for duckweed, whose fronds range in size from a pinhead (genus Wolffia) to under a centimeter in length (Lemna and Spirodela).

Duckweed can be used to cleanse waste water. It reduces nitrogen and phosphorous in human waste.

It also produces more protein on average than soybeans and can be used to feed exotic fish. Research is underway to genetically engineer duckweed to produce proteins like insulin.