Duckweed hunting in Hawassa
By A geochemist without borders Last weekend (weekend of July 24th) most of the Emory students [...] and I took a weekend trip to Hawassa, .... On Sunday we drove 45 minutes to Hawassa with one goal in mind: find duckweed. While there are many aspects to the research project we are working on, the entire project hinges on successfully cultivating duckweed, a tiny aquatic plant, and it is my job to ensure that we succeed. Despite being native to Ethiopia and a fast growing invasive ‘weed’, duckweed has remained elusive thus far. Ani identified duckweed growing in the baptismal ponds of Lalibela, the famous rock-hewn churches in northern Ethiopia, but being a holy site, he wasn’t able to collect any. We had a tip that duckweed is present in Hawassa – the authors of a research paper I read collected duckweed in marshes around Lake Hawassa – so we couldn’t return to Addis empty handed. Yup, it’s a hut. The stairs lead to a bedroom and bathroom. Behind the wooden wall are s