| 
| 
 Family (Christenhusz  et al, 2011) : AZOLLACEAE  Family (As per The Plant List) : Salviniaceae  Species : Azolla  pinnata    Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Azolla pinnata subsp. africana (Desv.) R.M.K. Saunders & K. Fowler (Unresolved Name)  Key identification features : Stem horizontal, profusely branched, zig-zag, bearing roots which are densely covered by about 2 mm long hairs; young roots protected by cone shaped root cap which encloses a bundle of root hairs; young leaves not in circinnate venation. Leaves alternate, arise from the dorsal lobe, aerial, more or less rectangular, sessile, margin entire with a narrow, whitish, transparent, membranous border, grey-green, thick, enclosing large mucilage filled cavities that harbour blue-green algae, upper surface of aerial lobe with dense, short, blunt, whitish trichomes; veins indistinct; ventral lobes submerged, broadly ovate, base cuneate, margin entire, copiously anastomosing, lobes thin membranaceous, transparent, brownish, glabrous; microsporocarps globose, brown with two layered wall, containing numerous microsporangia which arise from the central columella; megasporocarp smaller than the microsporocarp, ovate, enclosing single megasporangium.  Habit : Herb-Aquatic  Comments : Common in paddy fields and stagnant waters.  Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)  Distribution Locality : Tumkur  Floras referred : Rajagopal & Bhat, Pteridophytic flora of Karnataka State- 1998; Manickam V.S & Irudayaraj V. (1992)- Pteridophyte flora of W.Ghats, South India; Bhaskar & Kushalappa, 2013- Flora of Tumkur District  |  |  |