The Legend of Jenny Greenteeth

Duckweed is one of Britain’s most common small water plants. It forms a smooth green mat that covers bodies of still water. It has a simple body known as a thallus, which floats on the surface of the water, and a single root which hangs down.

You find duckweed all over London’s canals in August, which might help to explain the extraordinary proliferation of wildfowl we now have on the capital’s waterway system. You can see geese, ducks, moorhens, herons and so many swans that I’m starting to wonder what they taste like.

When covering the entire surface duckweed can make the water appear solid, and in our neighbourhood children sometimes try to walk on it – the canal water levels are very close to the surrounding pathways. In parts of the north-west of England children were scared away from such areas by the myth of Jenny Green-teeth, a pond elf or monster whose presence was indicated by duckweed; she was said to lure children into ponds and drown them.

Full Article: http://www.christopherfowler.co.uk/blog/2016/08/11/the-legend-of-jenny-green-teeth/