I.D. this floating plant

I was in the backyard looking for plants when I came across a pond boat that had been dragged under some trees. It was upturned and full of stagnant water. 2 of the three sections were just black water, but the third section was covered with this:



I scooped some up and found that the water was full of tiny larvae and some weird wiggling black worms. I scooped the plant off the surface and moved it to another container of water, then repeated this process a few more times until I had managed to seperate the plant from the critters. I now have it floating in a 10 gallon tank to see what happens.

It has very very short, tiny, straight roots growing down about 1 cm. I don't know anything about it, other than it was growing under a lot of shade, but if I can get it to replicate, I think it would make an ideal cover plant for an open top aquarium.

So, what is it?

 

Re: I.D. this floating plant

http://www.barrreport.com/gallery/files/7/5/5/untitled.JPG

http://www.paghat.com/duckweed.html

Yup, you're right.

But I don't understand how it can be hard to get rid of. It floats, just scoop it off the surface. Seems like it would be easy as pie to keep it as thin as you would like. Am I missing something?

 

Re: I.D. this floating plant

I'm trying to find out how to keep dragonflies. An open tank with a thinned partial cover of duckweed and a few resting dragonflies would be awesome. Anyone know how to keep dragonflies?

I've lately been looking up how to grow moss and keep dragonflies. People that I ask think I'm nuts. I asked the lady at the Walmart Garden Center yesterday if they sold moss seed. Wanna guess how she looked at me?