Unpretentious Humpback Duckweed

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Unpretentious Humpback Duckweed
Unpretentious Humpback Duckweed
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Unpretentious humpback duckweed
Unpretentious humpback duckweed

The humpback duckweed is found in a huge number of the most diverse corners of the globe. Most often, it lives in stagnant or slow-flowing bodies of water, but at the same time it can be seen much less often than the more numerous duckweed. In Mexico, humpback duckweed can often be found on sale in food markets - this aquatic inhabitant contains an impressive amount of carbohydrates and proteins. It also adapts very well to aquarium conditions - its beauty and very original shape can perfectly decorate the design of any aquarium. However, in Russia, humpback duckweed, unfortunately, is rare

Getting to know the plant

The shoots of the humpback duckweed, narrowed closer to the bases, reach five millimeters in length and smoothly turn into filiform legs equipped with one vein. Most often, these shoots float to the water surface during the flowering period - as a rule, they are oblong-lanceolate, very thin and translucent.

The length of the roots of the humpback duckweed can reach sixteen centimeters. All roots are equipped with rounded root pockets ranging in size from 0.6 to 0.8 mm. And they almost never form turions.

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Inflorescences of humpback duckweed are formed by one or two stamen and one pistillate flowers, sitting along relatively small peduncles. And their perianths are completely absent. Stamen flowers can be found both under and above pistillate flowers, and they are usually formed from a single stamen. The lobes of the pistils are both separated and spread out, and their single-nested ovaries include several ovules (from two to six).

The unilocular non-opening fruits of the humpback duckweed contain from one to six tiny seeds and are endowed with membranous pericarp. This aquatic inhabitant is a perennial hydrophyte that usually blooms in May or June. Before the beginning of flowering, long chains of humpback duckweed often break into several shorter ones, most often consisting of four or five plates. All blooming plates take on an olive-purple hue. By the way, flowering and fruiting of this water beauty occurs quite often.

The humpback duckweed easily floats on the water surface, usually covering it entirely. And, as a rule, it does not grow to an impressive size.

How to grow

The humpback duckweed is always kept on the water surface. No soil is required for its cultivation, in addition, this aquatic inhabitant serves as an excellent natural chemical filter - it perfectly emits oxygen and absorbs carbon dioxide, and also takes an active part in water purification, absorbing salts of heavy metals and various toxic substances. If it suddenly disappeared in the aquarium, this indicates that the water contains a huge amount of various harmful substances.

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The most optimal temperature for growing humpback duckweed is in the range from fifteen to thirty degrees, and the hardness of the water and its acidity do not matter at all.

Lighting for the safe keeping of humpback duckweed should be sufficiently intense, overhead and bright. In the event that there is too much of this aquatic beauty in the aquarium, and it begins to clog the filters, it is permissible to remove the overhead light, leaving only the side illumination - in this case, part of the plant will die quickly enough.

The humpback duckweed reproduces with the help of the stems of daughter plants formed in the marginal pockets. They do not immediately separate from the parent specimens, as a result of which sometimes beautiful whole plates of this green pet can be observed on the water surface. And it multiplies at an incredible rate.

In care, the humpback duckweed is rather unpretentious and has a fairly high productivity. She overwinters excellently, and also tolerates other unfavorable conditions quite well.

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