A tiny aquatic plant found in slow-moving or stagnant freshwater habitats across much of Africa, Europe and the Americas, Fat Duckweed floats freely on the surface of the water, respiring and carrying out photosynthesis through a buoyant leaf-like “main body” called a thallus while its single submerged root hangs down and absorbs inorganic nutrients such as nitrogen (which plants need to produce chlorophyll) from the water around it. Although they do occasionally produce flowers (particularly when exposed to intense sunlight and low water levels,) members of this species primarily reproduce asexually, with the thallus developing bud-like offshoots that split of into new but genetically identical offspring, and through this method of reproduction (which can occur every few days) Fat Duckweeds can quickly spread over vast areas, potentially near-totally covering the surface of the body of water they inhabit under ideal conditions. The root of an adult Fat Duckweed is sticky, allowing members of this species to compensate for their limited ability to spread their rarely-produced seeds by adhering to semiaquatic animals such as ducks, allowing them to be carried between bodies of water and colonise new areas (hence the name, “duckweed.”) If an individual should fall from the animal that was carrying it before reaching a suitable body of water, it may also be able to survive in sufficiently damp soil.
Let's make a pond to contemplate. Stand around and peer into it, maybe even take out a little canoe. Water and thick bottom gluppy mud ooze are already included.