Wolffia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A genus of tiny, free-floating aquatic plants known for being some of the smallest flowering plants on Earth and often found in freshwater environments
2. Extremely small plants that float on the surfaces of still or slow-moving freshwater bodies, notable for their minimal structure and being among the least complex flowering plants
3. Minute freshwater plants that drift on ponds or lakes, recognized for their diminutive size and simple morphology as some of the tiniest members in the plant kingdom

Etymology: Wolffia is a genus of tiny floating plants, and the smallest of them is among the smallest flowering plants in the world, each one often only about a millimetre across. The plants have no true stems or leaves in the usual sense. Each consists of a small, flat green body that floats on still water, and they are so reduced that they can look like grains of green dust. The name follows a common botanical pattern. Botanists often named genera after people, and "Wolffia" is a Latinised form of a surname, Wolff, with the feminine suffix "-ia" added. The genus is named after a botanist called Wolff, though I am uncertain which one. Its common English name, watermeal, refers to the same look: the plants resemble meal scattered across the surface of a pond.

Synonyms: duckweed, watermeal