Blog about my work

Story behind the Picture: Duckweed

This photo looks a little bit unreal while it's very simple and nearly unedited. It's a motion blurred long exposure of lemnoideae in a small river nearby my hometown. I find it very interesting because you can see the different shades of the plant but you can't imagine what it really is.

Lemnoideae is a small plant also known as duckweed, water lentils or water lenses. They float on or just beneath the surface of still or slow-moving bodies of fresh water and wetlands. These plants have a simple structure, lacking an obvious stem or leaves. The greater part of each plant is only a few cells thick, often with air pockets that allow it to float on or just under the water surface. Depending on the species, each plant may have no root or may have one or more simple rootlets.

Shot in 2003, germany.