It grows 20 times faster than corn, doubling in size within a few days through a natural cloning method. It can tangle the lines of recreational fishermen casting near duckweed along still, freshwater areas where the plants thrive. Wolffia species do not have roots, while Lemna and Spirodela have one or a few roots that dangle in the water. Duckweed can be used to cleanse wastewater, reducing nitrogen and phosphorous in human waste. Paul Skillicorn, who is attempting to set up a wastewater treatment system in the town of Hookerton, N.C., and other researchers also believe it could clean up hog waste, making lagoons unnecessary.
Duckweed produces more protein on average than soybeans.
It can also be used to feed exotic fish being raised for aquaculture. North Carolina State University researcher Anne-Marie Stomp has been working to genetically engineer duckweed to produce proteins such as insulin more cheaply and in greater quantities than through traditional methods. Stomp applied for a patent for her procedure and began Biolex Inc., a plant biotechnology company. She said duckweed clones itself naturally, creating an identical copy of its parent, and its high protein content and rapid growth could be used in a controlled environment. The amount of fecal coliform would be cut by 75 percent.