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Background  The plant body in duckweed species has undergone reduction and simplification from the ancient  Spirodela  species towards more derived  Wolffia  species. Among the five duckweed genera,  Wolffia  members are rootless and represent the smallest and most reduced species. A better understanding of  Wolffia  frond architecture is necessary to fully explore duckweed evolution.    Results  We conducted a comprehensive study of the morphology and anatomy of  Wolffia globosa , the only  Wolffia  species in China. We first used X-ray microtomography imaging to reveal the three-dimensional and internal structure of the  W. globosa  frond. This showed that new fronds rapidly budded from the hollow reproductive pocket of the mother fronds and that several generations at various developmental stages could coexist in a single  W. globosa  frond. Using light microscopy, we observed that the meristem area of the  W. globosa  frond was located at the base of the reproductive pocket and composed of undifferentiated cells that continued to produce new buds. A single epidermal layer surrounded the  W. globosa  frond, and the mesophyll cells varied from small and dense palisade-like parenchyma cells to large, vacuolated cells from the ventral to the dorsal part. Furthermore,  W. globosa  fronds contained all the same organelles as other angiosperms; the most prominent organelles were chloroplasts with abundant starch grains.    Conclusions  Our study revealed that the reproductive strategy of  W. globosa  plants enables the rapid accumulation of biomass and the wide distribution of this species in various habitats. The reduced body plan and size of  Wolffia  are consistent with our observation that relatively few cell types are present in these plants. We also propose that  W. globosa  plants are not only suitable for the study of structural reduction in higher plants, but also an ideal system to explore fundamental developmental processes of higher plants that cannot be addressed using other model plants.    Supplementary Information  The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12870-021-03165-5.

Frond architecture of the rootless duckweed Wolffia globosa