Abstract
Duckweeds (family Lemnaceae) comprise 37 angiosperm species, which are distributed among five genera. Although these tiny specimens represent the smallest flowering plants on earth, the group is practically ubiquitous in water bodies worldwide. The paucity of morphological features in duckweeds has made it difficult to elucidate their evolutionary history, or to present a compelling classification of the group, but more recent molecular evidence has facilitated an improved systematic evaluation of these unique plants. The duckweeds are closely related to aroids (family Araceae), with which they share several morphological features. Within Lemnaceae, the two species of Spirodela and the monotypic genus Landoltia are more distantly related to other duckweeds than are the larger genera Lemna, Wolffia, and Wolffiella to one another. A substantial amount of plastid DNA sequence data has upheld a phylogeny for the family that is mostly consistent, and many of those relationships have been corroborated by the recent addition of nuclear DNA data. Morphologically, the genera lacking roots (Wolffia and Wolffiella) comprise a single lineage, as do the three largest genera (Lemna, Wolffia, and Wolffiella) that are more reduced in comparison with Landoltia and Spirodela. The biogeography of Lemnaceae indicates that numerous dispersal events have occurred in relatively recent evolutionary time, and that several species essentially are cosmopolitan. Although not particularly speciose, duckweeds comprise a surprisingly diverse group with much potential for exploring various genetic, biochemical, and metabolic phenomena.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Apg, IV (The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group) (2016) An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG IV. Bot J Linn Soc 181:1–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/boj.12385
Appenroth KJ, Crawford DJ, Les DH (2015) After the genome sequencing of duckweed—how to proceed with research on the fastest growing angiosperm? Plant Biol 17(s1):1–4. https://doi.org/10.1111/plb.12248
Bog M, Baumbach H, Schween U et al (2010) Genetic structure of the genus Lemna L. (Lemnaceae) as revealed by amplified fragment length polymorphism. Planta 232:609–619. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-010-1201-2
Bog M, Schneider P, Hellwig F et al (2013) Genetic characterization and barcoding of taxa in the genus Wolffia Horkel ex Schleid. (Lemnaceae) as revealed by two plastidic markers and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Planta 237:1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-012-1777-9
Bog M, Lautenschlager U, Landrock MF et al (2015) Genetic characterization and barcoding of taxa in the genera Landoltia and Spirodela (Lemnaceae) by three plastidic markers and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Hydrobiologia 749:169–182. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-014-2163-3
Bog M, Landrock MF, Drefahl D, Sree KS, Appenroth KJ (2018) Fingerprinting by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and barcoding by three plastidic markers in the genus Wolffiella Hegelm. Plant Syst Evol 304:373–386. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-017-1482-z
Bonomo L, Pastorelli G, Zambon N (1997) Advantages and limitations of duckweed-based wastewater treatment systems. Water Sci Technol 35:239–246. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0273-1223(97)00074-7
Borisjuk N, Chu P, Gutierrez R et al (2015) Assessment, validation and deployment strategy of a two-barcode protocol for facile genotyping of duckweed species. Plant Biol 17(s1):42–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/plb.12229
Bruun-Lund S, Clement WL, Kjellberg F et al (2017) First plastid phylogenomic study reveals potential cyto-nuclear discordance in the evolutionary history of Ficus L. (Moraceae). Mol Phyl Evol 109:93–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2016.12.031
Buzgo M (2001) Flower structure and development of Araceae compared with alismatids and Acoraceae. Bot J Linn Soc 136:393–425. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8339.2001.tb00582.x
Brown R (1810) Prodromus florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van-Diemen. Taylor et Socii, London
Cabrera LI, Salazar GA, Chase MW et al (2008) Phylogenetic relationships of aroids and duckweeds (Araceae) inferred from coding and noncoding plastid DNA. Am J Bot 95:1153–1165. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.0800073
Cantó-Pastor A, Mollá-Morales A, Ernst E et al (2015) Efficient transformation and artificial miRNA gene silencing in Lemna minor. Plant Biol 17(s1):59–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/plb.12215
Ceschin S, Abati S, Leacche I et al (2017) Ecological comparison between duckweeds in central Italy: The invasive Lemna minuta vs the native L. minor. Plant Biosyst 152:674–683. https://doi.org/10.1080/11263504.2017.1317671
Cheng JJ, Stomp AM (2009) Growing duckweed to recover nutrients from wastewaters and for production of fuel ethanol and animal feed. Clean-Soil Air Water 37:17–26. https://doi.org/10.1002/clen.200800210
Coiffard C, Mohr BA (2018) Cretaceous tropical Alismatales in Africa: diversity, climate and evolution. Bot J Linn Soc 188:117–131. https://doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boy045
Coughlan NE, Kelly TC, Jansen MAK (2014) Mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos)-mediated dispersal of Lemnaceae: a contributing factor in the spread of invasive Lemna minuta? Plant Biol 17(s1):108–114. https://doi.org/10.1111/plb.12182
Coughlan NE, Kelly TC, Jansen MAK (2017) “Step by step”: high frequency short-distance epizoochorous dispersal of aquatic macrophytes. Biol Invasions 19:625–634. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-016-1293-0
Crawford DJ, Landolt E (1995) Allozyme divergence among species of Wolffia (Lemnaceae). Plant Syst Evol 197:59–69. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00984632
Crawford DJ, Landolt E, Les DH (1996) An allozyme study of two sibling species of Lemna (Lemnaceae) with comments on their morphology, ecology and distribution. Bull Torrey Bot Soc 123:1–6. https://doi.org/10.2307/2996300
Crawford DJ, Landolt E, Les DH et al (1997) Allozyme variation and the taxonomy of Wolffiella. Aquat Bot 58:43–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3770(97)00012-0
Crawford DJ, Landolt E, Les DH et al (2005) Allozyme variation within and divergence between Lemna gibba and L. disperma: systematic and biogeographic implications. Aquat Bot 83:119–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquabot.2005.06.001
Crawford DJ, Landolt E, Les DH et al (2006) Speciation in duckweeds (Lemnaceae): phylogenetic and ecological inferences. Aliso 22:231–242. https://doi.org/10.5642/aliso.20062201.19
Cui W, Cheng JJ (2015) Growing duckweed for biofuel production: a review. Plant Biol 17(s1):16–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/plb.12216
Cusimano N, Bogner J, Mayo SJ et al (2011) Relationships within the Araceae: comparison of morphological patterns with molecular phylogenies. Am J Bot 98:654–668. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.1000158
Driever SM, van Nes EH, Roijackers RMM (2005) Growth limitation of Lemna minor due to high plant density. Aquat Bot 81:245–251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquabot.2004.12.002
Gaut B, Lewis PO (1995) Success of maximum likelihood phylogeny inference in the four-taxon case. Mol Biol Evol 12:152–162. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a040183
Ge X, Zhang N, Phillips GC et al (2012) Growing Lemna minor in agricultural wastewater and converting the duckweed biomass to ethanol. Bioresource Technol 124:485–488. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2012.08.050
Gray SF (1821) A natural arrangement of British plants, vol 2. Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, London
Grayum MH (1991) Systematic embryology of the Aracae. Bot Rev 57:167–203. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02858562
Green AJ (2016) The importance of waterbirds as an overlooked pathway of invasion for alien species. Divers Distrib 22:239–247. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12392
Halder S, Venu P (2012) Lemna landoltii sp. nov. (Lemnaceae) from India. Taiwania 58:12–14. https://doi.org/10.6165/tai.2013.58.12
Hegelmaier F (1868) Die Lemnaceen: eine monographische Untersuchung. Engelmann, Leipzig
Hegelmaier F (1895) Systematische übersicht der Lemnaceen. Bot Jahrb Syst 21:268–305
Henriquez CL, Arias T, Pires JC et al (2014) Phylogenomics of the plant family Araceae. Mol Phyl Evol 75:91–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2014.02.017
Hillman WS (1961) The Lemnaceae, or duckweeds. Bot Rev 27:221–287. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02860083
Hillman WS (1976) Calibrating duckweeds: light, clocks, metabolism, flowering. Science 193:453–458. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.193.4252.453
IPNI (The International Plant Names Index) (2018). Published on the Internet. http://www.ipni.org. accessed 22 May 2018
Jacobs DL (1947) An ecological life-history of Spirodela polyrhiza (greater duckweed) with emphasis on the turion phase. Ecol Monogr 17:437–469. https://doi.org/10.2307/1948596
Jacono CC (2018) Landoltia punctata (G. Mey.) Les & D.J. Crawford: U.S. Geological Survey, Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL, https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?SpeciesID=1116. Revision Date: 6/13/2002, Access Date: 5/23/2018
Jordan WC, Courtney MW, Neigel JE (1996) Low levels of intraspecific genetic variation at a rapidly evolving chloroplast DNA locus in North American duckweeds (Lemnaceae). Am J Bot 83:430–43. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1537-2197.1996.tb12724.x
Keating RC (2002) Acoraceae and Araceae. In: Gregory M, Cutler DF (eds) Anatomy of the monocotyledons, vol 9. Oxford University Press, Oxford p, pp 1–327
Kim J, Sanderson MJ (2008) Penalized likelihood phylogenetic inference: bridging the parsimony-likelihood gap. Syst Biol 57:665–674. https://doi.org/10.1080/10635150802422274
Kimball RT, Crawford DJ, Les DH et al (2003) Out of Africa: molecular phylogenetics and biogeography of Wolffiella (Lemnaceae). Biol J Linn Soc 79:565–576. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1095-8312.2003.00210.x
Kück P, Mayer C, Wägele JW et al (2012) Long branch effects distort maximum likelihood phylogenies in simulations despite selection of the correct model. PLoS ONE 7:e36593. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0036593
Kvaček Z (1995) Limnobiophyllum Krassilov—a fossil link between the Araceae and the Lemnaceae. Aquat Bot 50:49–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3770(94)00442-O
Laird RA, Barks PM (2018) Skimming the surface: duckweed as a model system in ecology and evolution. Am J Bot 105:(not yet paginated). https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.1194
Landolt E (1986) The family of Lemnaceae—a monographic study. Ver Geobot Inst ETH Stift Rübel 71:1–563
Landolt E (1992a) Wolfiella caudata, a new Lemnaceae species from the Bolivian Amazon region. Ber Geobot Inst ETH Stift Rübel 58:121–123
Landolt E (1992b) The flowers of Wolffia australiana (Lemnaceae). Ber Geobot Inst ETH Stift Rübel 58:132–137
Landolt E (1994) Taxonomy and ecology of the section Wolffia of the genus Wolffia (Lemnaceae). Ber Geobot Inst ETH Stift Rübel 60:137–151
Landolt E (1998) Lemna yungensis, a new duckweed species from rocks of the Andean Yungas in Bolivia. Bull Geobot Inst ETH 64:15–21
Landolt E (2000) Contribution on the Lemnaceae of Ecuador. Fragm Flor Geobot 45:221–237
Landolt E, Kandeler R (1987) The family of Lemnaceae—a monographic study, vol. 2. Ver Geobot Inst ETH Stift Rübel 2:211–234
Lasfar S, Monette F, Millette L et al (2007) Intrinsic growth rate: a new approach to evaluate the effects of temperature, photoperiod and phosphorus–nitrogen concentrations on duckweed growth under controlled eutrophication. Water Res 41:2333–2340. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2007.01.059
Les DH, Crawford DJ (1999) Landoltia (Lemnaceae), a new genus of duckweeds. Novon 9:530–533. https://doi.org/10.2307/3392157
Les DH, Tippery NP (2013) In time and with water… the systematics of alismatid monocotyledons. In: Wilkin P, Mayo SJ (eds) Early events in monocot evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 118–164
Les DH, Landolt E, Crawford DJ (1997) Systematics of the Lemnaceae (duckweeds): Inferences from micromolecular and morphological data. Plant Syst Evol 204:161–177. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00989203
Les DH, Crawford DJ, Landolt E et al (2002) Phylogeny and systematics of Lemnaceae, the duckweed family. Syst Bot 27:221–240. https://doi.org/10.1043/0363-6445-27.2.221
Les DH, Crawford DJ, Kimball RT et al (2003) Biogeography of discontinuously distributed hydrophytes: a molecular appraisal of intercontinental disjunctions. Int J Plant Sci 164:917–932. https://doi.org/10.1086/378650
Lindley J (1846) The vegetable kingdom, ed 2. Bradbury and Evans, London
Linnaeus C (1753) Species plantarum, vol 2. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
Magallón S, Gómez-Acevedo S, Sánchez-Reyes LL et al (2015) A metacalibrated time-tree documents the early rise of flowering plant phylogenetic diversity. New Phyt 207:437–453. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.13264
Martirosyan EV, Ryzhova NN, Kochieva EZ et al (2009) Analysis of chloroplast rps16 intron sequences in Lemnaceae. Mol Biol 43:32–38. https://doi.org/10.1134/S002689330
Mathews S (2009) Phylogenetic relationships among seed plants: persistent questions and the limits of molecular data. Am J Bot 96:228–236. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.0800178
Mayo SJ, Bogner J, Boyce PC (1997) The genera of Araceae. The Trustees, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Nauheimer L, Metzler D, Renner SS (2012) Global history of the ancient monocot family Araceae inferred with models accounting for past continental positions and previous ranges based on fossils. New Phytol 195:938–950. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2012.04220.x
Oron G (1994) Duckweed culture for wastewater renovation and biomass production. Agr Water Manage 26:27–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-3774(94)90022-1
Paradis E (2013) Molecular dating of phylogenies by likelihood methods: a comparison of models and a new information criterion. Mol Phyl Evol 67:436–444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2013.02.008
Parr LB, Perkins RG, Mason CF (2002) Reduction in photosynthetic efficiency of Cladophora glomerata, induced by overlying canopies of Lemna spp. Water Res 36:1735–1742. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0043-1354(01)00395-5
Philippe H, Zhou Y, Brinkmann H et al (2005) Heterotachy and long-branch attraction in phylogenetics. BMC Evol Biol 5:50. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-5-50
R Core Group (2018) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna. https://www.r-project.org
Roijackers R, Szabó S, Scheffer M (2004) Experimental analysis of the competition between algae and duckweed. Archiv für Hydrobiologie 160:401–412. https://doi.org/10.1127/0003-9136/2004/0160-0401
Rusoff LL, Blakeney EW Jr, Culley DD Jr (1980) Duckweeds (Lemnaceae family): a potential source of protein and amino acids. J Agric Food Chem 28:848–850. https://doi.org/10.1021/jf60230a040
Sanderson MJ (2002) Estimating absolute rates of molecular evolution and divergence times: a penalized likelihood approach. Mol Biol Evol 19:101–109. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a003974
Schleiden MJ (1839) Prodromus monographiae Lemnacearum. Linnaea 13:385–392
Schreber JCD (1791) Genera plantarum, vol 2. Varrentrapp & Wenner, Frankfurt
Sculthorpe CD (1967) The biology of aquatic vascular plants. St. Martin’s Press, New York
Sree KS, Bog M, Appenroth KJ (2016) Taxonomy of duckweeds (Lemnaceae), potential new crop plants. Emir J Food Agr 28:291–302. https://doi.org/10.9755/ejfa.2016-01-038
Stockey RA, Hoffman GL, Rothwell GW (1997) The fossil monocot Limnobiophyllum scutatum: resolving the phylogeny of Lemnaceae. Am J Bot 84:355–368. https://doi.org/10.2307/2446009
Stockey RA, Rothwell GW, Johnson KR (2007) Cobbania corrugata gen. et comb. nov. (Araceae): a floating aquatic monocot from the Upper Cretaceous of western North America. Am J Bot 94:609–624. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.94.4.609
Stockey RA, Rothwell GW, Johnson KR (2016) Evaluating relationships among floating aquatic monocots: a new species of Cobbiana (Araceae) from the Upper Maastrichtian of South Dakota. Int J Plant Sci 177:706–725. https://doi.org/10.1086/688285
Stomp AM (2005) The duckweeds: a valuable plant for biomanufacturing. Biotechnol Ann Rev 11:69–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1387-2656(05)11002-3
Su H, Zhao Y, Jiang J et al (2014) Use of duckweed (Landoltia punctata) as a fermentation substrate for the production of higher alcohols as biofuels. Energ Fuel 28:3206–3216. https://doi.org/10.1021/ef500335h
Tippery NP, Les DH (2011) Phylogenetic relationships and morphological evolution in Nymphoides (Menyanthaceae). Syst Bot 36:1101–1113. https://doi.org/10.1600/036364411X605092
Tippery NP, Les DH, Crawford DJ (2015) Evaluation of phylogenetic relationships in Lemnaceae using nuclear ribosomal data. Plant Biol 17(s1):50–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/plb.12203
Turland NJ, Wiersema JH, Barrie FR et al (eds) (2018) International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Shenzhen Code) adopted by the Nineteenth International Botanical Congress Shenzhen, China, July 2017. Regnum Vegetabile 159. Koeltz Botanical Books, Glashütten. https://doi.org/10.12705/Code.2018
Wang W, Messing J (2011) High-throughput sequencing of three Lemnoideae (duckweeds) chloroplast genomes from total DNA. PLoS ONE 6:e24670. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0024670
Wang W, Wu Y, Messing J (2012) The mitochondrial genome of an aquatic plant. Spirodela polyrhiza. PLoS One 7:e46747. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0046747
Wang W, Haberer G, Gundlach H et al (2014) The Spirodela polyrhiza genome reveals insights into its neotenous reduction fast growth and aquatic lifestyle. Nat Commun 5:3311. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms4311
Wickett NJ, Mirarab S, Nguyen N et al (2014) Phylotranscriptomic analysis of the origin and early diversification of land plants. Proc Nat Acad Sci 111:E4859–E4868. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1323926111
Xu J, Zhao H, Stomp AM et al (2012) The production of duckweed as a source of biofuels. Biofuels 3:589–601. https://doi.org/10.4155/bfs.12.31
Yamamoto YT, Rajbhandari N, Lin X et al (2001) Genetic transformation of duckweed Lemna gibba and Lemna minor. Vitro Cell Dev-Pl 37:349–353. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11627-001-0062-6
Yu Y, Harris AJ, He XJ (2010) S-DIVA (statistical dispersal-vicariance analysis): a tool for inferring biogeographic histories. Mol Phyl Evol 56:848–850. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2010.04.011
Yu Y, Harris AJ, Blair C et al (2015) RASP (reconstruct ancestral state in phylogenies): a tool for historical biogeography. Mol Phyl Evol 87:46–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2015.03.008
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Daniel J. Crawford for reviewing the novel biogeographical research presented here and to Paul Fourounjian, Wenqin Wang, and Hieu Cao for editorial assistance.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tippery, N.P., Les, D.H. (2020). Tiny Plants with Enormous Potential: Phylogeny and Evolution of Duckweeds. In: Cao, X., Fourounjian, P., Wang, W. (eds) The Duckweed Genomes. Compendium of Plant Genomes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11045-1_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11045-1_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-11044-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-11045-1
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)