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| Red Azolla, Pond lettuce, and Parrot Fern |
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| Healthy Azolla |
Azolla has an interesting history and interesting future.
Research on Azolla
Dual application of duckweed and azolla plants for wastewater treatment and renewable fuels and petrochemicals production
Eocene Arctic Ocean sediments deposited at a time of large Azolla blooms contained glycolipids typical for heterocystous cyanobacteria presently living in symbiosis with the freshwater fern Azolla, indicating that this symbiosis already existed in that time. Our study thus suggests that heterocystous cyanobacteria played a major role in adding “new” fixed nitrogen to surface waters in past stratified oceans.
Traditionally Azolla is maintained and propogated in slow-flowing creeks or overwintered in protected beds, then introduced into paddies between plantings of rice. The fern can then be either incorporated before rice seedlings are transplanted, or left to be shaded out as the rice canopy develops. The low C:N ratio of the fern ensures rapid mineralization after incorporation, with yields in the subsequent rice crop enhanced by up to 1000 kg ha-1.
Eocene Arctic Ocean sediments deposited at a time of large Azolla blooms contained glycolipids typical for heterocystous cyanobacteria presently living in symbiosis with the freshwater fern Azolla, indicating that this symbiosis already existed in that time. Our study thus suggests that heterocystous cyanobacteria played a major role in adding “new” fixed nitrogen to surface waters in past stratified oceans.
Traditionally Azolla is maintained and propogated in slow-flowing creeks or overwintered in protected beds, then introduced into paddies between plantings of rice. The fern can then be either incorporated before rice seedlings are transplanted, or left to be shaded out as the rice canopy develops. The low C:N ratio of the fern ensures rapid mineralization after incorporation, with yields in the subsequent rice crop enhanced by up to 1000 kg ha-1.
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