Water Fern - Azolla filiculoides

This is a floating aquatic fern. Each individual plant is 1 to 2 cm across, green tinged pink, orange or red at the edges, branching freely, and breaking into smaller sections as it grows. It often takes on a red colour in summer and when stressed.

Mostly in still and slow moving water.

Best seen in warmer months as it dies back in winter.

It is a floating aquatic fern, with very fast growth, capable of spreading over lake surfaces to give complete coverage of the water in only a few months.

Increasingly common and now fairly frequent in the southern half of England, less common elsewhere.

Increasingly common and now fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 8 of the 617 tetrads.