Asian Watermeal

Fronds minute, aquatic, free floating on the surface, like grains of sand, 0.3-0.7 x 0.2-03 mm, thick, globose, ellipsoid. Flowering specimen not seen in Pakistan.

Fronds ovoid, 0.4--0.8 mm (x 0.3--0.5 mm), 1.3--2 times as long as wide, 1--1.5 times as deep as wide, rounded or slightly pointed at apex, papilla absent; adaxial surface transparently green, with 1--10(--30) stomates; pigment cells absent in vegetative tissue. 2n = 30, 60.

Africa, India, Ceylon, Indo-China, China, Malaysia, Australia.

Distribution: Africa, Australia, SE Asia, Pakistan, India & North America (California, Florida).

probably introduced; Calif., Fla.; South America (Colombia, Ecuador); e Asia; Pacific Islands (Hawaii).

1400 m

Flowering (very rare) late spring--fall.

Mesotrophic to eutrophic, quiet waters in warm-temperate to tropical regions with mild winters; 0--600m.

Lemna globosa Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. ed. 1832, 3: 565. 1832