You thought I was writing about this?
Continue reading below the swirl of orange smoke for the real story.
The Backyard Science group regularly publishes The Daily Bucket, which features observations of the world around us. What's in your backyard? Funny insects, unusual birds, pretty flowers, healthy vegetables, or shy snakes?Any of these and much more are worthy additions to the Bucket and its comments. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment, and provide a picture if you can. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. Each note is a record that we can refer to as we try to understand the patterns that are unwinding around us.
I meant this, of course, Duckweed. Here's a picture of duckweed fronds.
Duckweed is part of the Lemnaceae family, which are the smallest flowering plants with no leaves or stems, although my Duckweed (species Lemna minor) does have hairlike roots, shown below.
On June 5, 2015, The Frogs' Mitigation Area (FMA) pond had zero visible duckweed. The FMA is a small pond and 30 foot narrow creek I dug into my back yard to provide native frog habitat. In late Spring I witnessed a burgeoning population of native frog tadpoles, but abruptly, duckweed appeared and more than matched the growth of well, anything.
Within a month, duckweed covered the pond. This picture, taken August 1, shows duckweed covering well over 90% of the pond surface, and it is even edging upstream into the tributary creek.
internet pond advice columns claim that duckweed can double in weight in 16-24 hours. I've had duckweed in prior ponds, but it was never this dense. It can stick to animals' legs and feet and get transported to other water bodies, but I don't have any in my two neighboring ponds.
Oddly, duckweed thrives in water bodies that are oversaturated with nutrients and phosporus. The duckweed eats up those nutrients, thus removing them and cleaning up the water. It has potential as a low--tech water pollution control method, for instance at sewage wastewater treatment plants.
While interesting, this doesn't explain why I have duckweed on the FMA, where there are no fish and thus no nitrogen-rich fish poop, but I do not have duckweed in the much larger ponds which harbor dozens of goldfish.
Unless, of course, the fish in the other ponds simply eat up all the duckweed. They eat it when I toss some in for them. I suspect the duckweed arrived on some pond plants purchased last Fall, along with what seems like several million snails that appeared at about the same time.
The tadpoles ate the duckweed also, so I welcome it. Its aggressive coverage of the pond surface helps reduce algae growth, and also cools the water and vastly reduces evaporation, which was a big help this hot summer.
I even found a recipe for duckweed (aka water lentils) so I may even add an update on how it tastes, and how it could help cure the world's food shortages, provided folks also have some white wine, ginger, shallots and garlic on hand.
Now It's Your Turn What's interesting to you? Please post your own observations and your general location in the comments. I'll respond after lunchtime because I work tomorrow morning.
"Spotlight on Green News & Views" will be posted every Saturday at 1pm and Wednesday at 3:30 pm Pacific Time on the Daily Kos front page. Be sure to recommend and comment in the diary.