Scientific Name: Azolla filiculoides
Common Name: Fairy moss, mosquito fern
Family Name: Salviniaceae
Origin: North America, South America
Hardiness Zone: Zone 7: (-18 to -12 °C)
Plant Type: Aquatic plant, Fern, Herbaceous perennial
Mature Size: < 0.1m x < 0.1m (height x width)
Habit: Horizontal, Spreading
Form: Creeping / Mat-like
Texture: Fine
Landscape Uses: Aquatic - ponds
Exposure: Full sun, Part sun/part shade
Soil or Media:
Leaves: Simple, Lobed, Fern-like, Imbricate, Soft flexible, Pubescent, Reniform, Entire
Flowers:
Fruit: Sporangium (spores), Brown, Jul-Aug
Key ID Features:
Rapidly expanding tiny fern on still water surfaces with dark brown-black rhizoids; fronds densely overlapping, forming moss-like mats mostly 2-6cm long of foliage about 1mm long; sporangia <1mm long form in summer on upper surface.