Watermeal
Other Common Names: mealweed
(Wolffia columbiana)
Native
Watermeal is a tiny floating plant that makes swirls across the water and looks like bright green strawberry seeds up close.
Description
Light to bright green, individual watermeal plants look like little granules of corn meal. Each plant grows to be thirty-nine thousandths of an inch to fifty-nine thousandths of an inch long, about the size of a pinhead.
It is the smallest flowering plant in the world; flowers can only be seen through a microscope.
Watermeal plants are spherical or oval shaped and have no roots. These plants often make swirls on the water, floating and blowing around with the wind.
Many people confuse watermeal for duckweed, and the two regularly exist together.
People are disheartened when their duckweed treatment does not fully work on what is really watermeal. Watermeal can be knocked back by many products but will not completely die off. Proper identification can help save time, effort, and money.
Management Options
Click here for more information on how to control watermeal.
Location
Watermeal can be found across the United States.
Propagation
seeds
Management Options
Click here for more information on how to control watermeal.