Lemna minuta Least Duckweed

A tiny, floating aquatic perennial which often occurs in such abundance that it completely covers the surface of canals, ponds and other slow flowing water systems. It is native to North and South America, occuring in temperate and subtropical regions but is now naturalised in many parts of Europe including Britain where it was first recorded in Cambridge in 1977. Since then it has spread westwards and northwards and it is widespread in parts of Wales. It has a scattered distribution in West Glamorgan at present but it is probably both under recorded and likely to become much more widespread in future. The fronds, which are usually just a few millimetres in diameter, reproduce by vegetative budding and dispersal of vegetative propagules is probably via wildfowl.

Neophyte