Azolla are tiny aquatic ferns, and can be used as a food for livestock, and even humans. One way to use it is by adding it with omelettes :-)  But make sure you have the azolla from reliable water ponds and not from waste water pools were the aquatic plants may be infected by worms

Azolla are also used to control mosquitos, as it spreads quickly like a mat, over the water surface. I was looking into the literature on Azolla, and was astounded by a recent (2006) study published in the scientific journal Nature, on the possible role played by it during the Eocene period, around 49 million years ago. The study by Brinkhuis et al. pointed out that azolla may have had a significant role in reversing a greenhouse warming effect that had caused the region around the Arctic Ocean to turn into a hot, tropical environment.

The potential of Azolla as a space diet has also been studied! Check the references and links below if you want to know more about these studies on Azolla.

The seeds of the Trapa natans [water chestnut], is also used as a food. We haven’t but noticed the seeds yet though we got a lot of flowers from the plant, like the small yellow flower you see in the picture above. Probably they need to grow wild and large for that. We love trapa natans, its rosette shape is so beautiful, especially when it spreads and lie majestically over the water surface. During night time the leaves droop together like the petals of a flower. The trapa natans shown here is a foeigner, and there is a type endemic to the Indian region. We saw the Indian version at an aquatic garden/farm (under the Guruvayurappan college or Calicut University, I don’t remember now) at Kozhikode, Kerala. I think it is not that common.

Sometimes we have visits from our non aquatic friends, like the red velvet mite [Family: Trombidiidae] above. You can see that they are so tiny, if you have an idea of the size of azolla, or comparing the images above. Velvet mites are not insects, but belong to the class of arachnids [Class: Arachnidea] which includes spiders, scorpions and other mites too, with the usual 8 legs.

Date: Jan 2008
Location: @ home, Kottayam, Kerala, India
Camera: Nikon D80 | Olympus C770UZ

Reference:
1. Brinkhuis et al., 2006: Episodic fresh surface waters in the Eocene Arctic Ocean, Nature, 441, 606-609 [link].
2. Katayama et al., 2008: Azolla as a component of the space diet during habitation on Mars, Acta Astronautica, 63, 7-10 [link].

ആ പുഷ്പങ്ങളിലൊരു പനിനീര്‍പ്പൂവിനെയവന്‍ കണ്ടൂ-
പ്രണയത്തിന്‍ കാല്‍ചിലന്പുകളവനാ
സൌന്ദര്യത്തില്‍ കേള്‍ക്കുവാന്‍ കൊതിച്ചു
          ”പക്ഷേ, നീയോ ശവമേ,
           നിനക്കെന്തര്‍ഹതയെന്‍ സ്നേഹത്തിനായ്
           നിന്‍ സാമീപ്യമെന്‍ സൌന്ദര്യത്തിലും കളങ്കം വീഴ്‍ത്തീല്ലയൊ?”

…അവനാ മണ്ണില്‍ നൈരാശ്യത്തിന്‍ ചൂടു വിതറി

പനിനീര്‍പ്പൂവോ,
വാടിത്തളര്‍,ന്നവനേപ്പോലെയാ നെഞ്ചിലേയ്‍ക്കു വീണു;
മുള്ളുകള്‍ തറഞ്ഞപ്പോഴുമവനു രക്തമൊഴുക്കാന്‍ നല്ലൊരു ഹൃദയം
                                                                ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു…

This article is in Malayalam language. Any reading problems? Check here.

shez first love, the first girl in life. memories are warm in my heart; cud still make out her scent, her voice, eyes. i dedicate my poor lines to that cute innocent girl who stood in front of me at the school chapel and chanted the mantras of love 2 my heart. she left me with a thirst for love n life forever.

The clouds were departing
Thunder and lightning
Slowly lowering
In love my heart was glowing

It was a Friday morn’
That I met her in the room
I thought it was my boon
For being in her heart soon

It isn’t the beauty she bear
Nor the clothes she wear
But her stainless love, I swear
That makes her dear

Her smiles are full of pleasure
Her love for me is beyond measure
Thoughts of her is a valuable treasure
That fills my cheeks with cheer

She is charming to my heart
Like an oasis in the desert
A red rose on the shirt
That makes one alert

Her body has an enchanting fragrance
That makes me gay at once
Her love doesn’t have any tense
Which often creates a menace

In the midst of the night
My heart would be full tight
Of want of a sight
Which is all my right

When I’m with her
I feel like on the upmost tower
With a man’s power
Which one can’t discover

So many are my dreams
And for me it seems
As lustre of the golden streams
Which never fades

And may her lovely face
Last for ever and ever
In this heart of a lover
With great joy and pleasure

class ix, girideepam bethany. 11.01.95

her eyes caught the roses
its beauty was enhanced in those glowing eyes
i saw more of them than i saw her, in her eyes
i was such proud of my roses
the roses that sketched my own love

but she
she took them in her hands
she talked to me, twisting the bunch in her hands
petals came one by one
she found fun in flying them
in the breeze that passed by
a thorn caught her hand
and she looked at me with anger
–she threw them away
my roses–

a stampede of human feet came
crushing the roses into the mud
the petals of love
the petals of love
the fragrance of love
the beauty of love
the silence of love
all diminished into mere dirt
there they lie kissing the earth
wetting it in red blood
____ my heart was in those roses_

skeleton of poetry writing, CMS college, 2000