Algae and Plants
67
Marsilea minuta (L.)
Order: Salvinales
Family: Marsileaceae
Common name: Dwarf water clover,
small water clover, Gelid waterklawer.
Distribution: Widely distributed in
tropical Africa and Asia (Mani, 2013).
Habitat: Shallow pools, at the edges of
rivers, canals, and ditches and in rice
fields; temporarily flooded places.
Description: It is a floating form. Stipe
is up to 26 cm long, slender, hairless.
Leaflets are up to 15–28 × 10–29  mm,
broadly obovate, outer margin rounded,
entire to shallowly irregular and hairless.
The shoot of this species is edible (Flora of
Zimbabwe).
Nutritional Facts
Proximate Composition of Shoot (% DM)
Fat
CHO a
Protein
4.0
4.8
8.0
a Carbohydrate.
Minerals (% or mg/100 g DM)
P
(%)
N2
(%)
K
(%)
Na
(%)
Fe
(mg)
Mg
(mg)
Cu
(mg)
Zn
(mg)
0.94 1.28 0.37 0.02 0.68 0.71 0.09 0.21
Source: Data from Jain et al. (2011).