Mosquito Fern

Azolla, commonly called mosquito fern, water fern or fairy moss, is a genus of seven species of aquatic ferns in the family Salviniaceae, extremely reduced in form and specialised compared with other ferns and more closely resembling some mosses or duckweeds. Azolla filiculoides is one of only two fern species for which a reference genome has been published, and the genus is thought to have grown so prolifically during the Eocene that it helped trigger a global cooling event whose effects have lasted to the present. Azolla can also become invasive outside its native range, where it alters aquatic ecosystems by exhausting oxygen and covering the water surface so that underwater plants cannot photosynthesise.