Rapidly growing plants often have three or four attached fronds. In fall, budding pouches produce smaller, rootless, dark green or brownish daughter plants called turions. These dense, dormant, starchfilled structures sink in the fall and rise in the spring due to changes in starch composition and gas spaces. Although Duckweed can set seed and produce fruit like other flowering plants, flowers and seed are uncommon. Plants may overwinter as turions, or as seeds, sinking and resting at the bottom of the pond until they germinate.
Duckweed reproduce at twice the rate of other vascular plants.
Like most water plants, does best in full sun. Goldfish, and other carp, are particularly fond of duckweed. Can be invasive in garden ponds without goldfish, but can be controlled rather easily by surface skimming with a hand skimmer from a swimming pool supplier. Just throw it in the compost - it's rich in nutrients.