Pond Boss
Posted By: PJB New Pond - Help Identifying Plants - 07/31/17 05:36 PM
I have a fairly new pond that was built this past fall. I believe the first plant is an arrowhead but need confirmation. I'm not sure on the second one. Can you please help me identify these plants and whether they are good or bad for a pond? Thanks in advance!



I had some reed looking very much like what you have.the neighbors lake is surrounded by that stuff to the point that you can't get through it. It looks like cattail but never makes a top like cattail. I dug it up with my front end loader and killed it. Don't know what it's called but I don't want that stuff. It spreads by rhizomes under the mud as you can see in your pix, my opinion only your results may vary
Posted By: smokey Re: New Pond - Help Identifying Plants - 07/31/17 06:12 PM
PBJ, I had the same stuff (looks like cattails) and like Pat I got rid of it before it could spread like crazy. The other plant is arrowhead. It is a good plant to have along the shoreline. It will not grow in very deep water. You are lucky it came up voluntary, I had to buy it and then I found out that the turtles love to eat it.
Posted By: Quarter Acre Re: New Pond - Help Identifying Plants - 07/31/17 06:43 PM
Your first pic is Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia) otherwise known as Duck Potato or Wapata. I find that it is a pleasant addition to my pond. It does not get overly tall or grow in very deep waters so it tends to stay close to the shore. My arrowheads are growing in depths up to 16" and some are approaching 3 feet tall. I transplanted about ten of these earlier this year only to have about 200 start on their own the next week (from existing seeds I presume). I pulled some out to plant some other plants I purchased, but would have left them in if I had no intention of trying to start other plant species.

I'm not sure about your cattail-looking stuff. There are several types of cattails in Missouri...

http://www.cattails.info/Types_of_cattail.html

You might also look up Bur-Reed (Sparganium eurycarpum), Sweet Flag
(Acorus calamus), and wild Iris.

Here is a good link to Missouri aquatic plants...

https://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/resources/2010/09/aquaticplantsinpond.pdf
Posted By: RAH Re: New Pond - Help Identifying Plants - 07/31/17 10:24 PM
Pull the cattail now to avoid bigger problems later. I pulled a dozen yesterday on my newest pond.
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