Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Identifying plants What is this emergent plant?

Stem has a distinctive tri cross section and the fruit is thorny (has spikes on it). Fruit is shown in the center. Sorry can't seem to get the picture to become larger.

Wow, that is small.

I'm guessing yellow nutsedge. It's very hateful and hard to get did of.

Bobab,

Thank you for your response but I don't think that's what it is. I looked up the yellow nutsedge on the Internet and the fruit and pics didn't look right although both have a tri shaped stem. Sorry about the small pic but for some reason my computer won't save it any larger.

My experience is, this one is not that invasive and it can't compete with cattails. It only appears when I remove the cattails. It grows in same habitat as the cattails (not as deep of water) and not as dense.

It also only gets a couple of feet high max. I can live with this one vs. the extremely invasive cattails.

Could it be the three-square?

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/emergent_plants/three-square.htm

Try now

Could be but I wish the fruits were clearer in the picture provided to be sure.

Another try... still looking like nutsedge to me.

Cecil, this is a bur-reed (Sparganium species) of some type. There are many different species. You can look it up and decide which species you have. By the way, it is a very good plant to have.

The Corps of Engineers has a book called "Wetland Plants and Plant Communities of Minnesota and Wisconsin" that is extremely useful in the Upper Midwest.

Cecil,

I think Norm nailed it. Here is a link that will hopefully match what you have.

http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/spampic.html

It is a sedge of some form. It will be hard to determine the exact species without an actual plant, but if I were to guess I would say flat sedge(Cyperus odoratus). Sedges are not very invasive. I wouldn't worry much about it.

Thanks everyone. Nope it's not invasive at all. Nice looking plants and the fish love 'em.

With the onset of fall here in the northeast, does anyone know if you can transplant burreed rhizomes this time of year. The initial plantings in my BG pond have taken hold and I'd like to establish them along another shallow shelf. Surface water temperature hit 58 degrees F the other day.

Russ take a look at this (top and bottom para.). My guess is that such plantings would work.

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/emergent_plants/sedges_mgmt.htm#cultivation

Cecil - You definately do not have a bur-reed (Sparganium) because all of their stems are round in cross section. I agree with those who said it is a sedge -Cyperus. Can you put that newly discovered Close-Up function on your roommate's camera into action? A close, clear photo of the stems/leaves and fruiting bodies would be helpful. All I get from your Photo bucket post is "This image has been moved or deleted". I have similar looking plants that ewest posted in my back pond. I will work on a specific ID and a good photo for them tomorrow.

Russ - A lot of the aquatic plants are quite tolerant and can be easily moved most any time of the year. Just be sure to get plenty of root stock in each transplant.

Bill the pic I posted is a poor quality enlargement of what CB1 posted , if that helps any. This is as good as I could do.

Eric and Bill, thanks for the information. Of the limited material I read, it simply stated spring and fall for transplant periods. I wasn't sure if water temperature played a part.


Bill,

I hope Cecil responds with a close up of his plant. From the photo Eric posted, it looks like the flower is spherical and spiked (as Cecil mentioned). From the link I posted,

"Sparganium americanum Bur-reed is an emersed plant, but it is not common. It is found in shallow water of swamps, ponds, and streams, and grows to 2 1/2 feet tall.

Bur-reed grows from slender underground rhizomes. It has straplike leaves, about 3/4 inch wide. The leaves are flat above, but become "channeled" in the lower half. The leaves are bright-green, and are thickish and spongy. They alternate along the lower stem, with the lower leaves growing much taller than the stem. Bur-reed is easiest to recognize by its stalk of large spherical bur-like flower clusters: spherical heads about one inch in diameter."

In reference to the last sentence, is the flower of Cyperus sp. spherical?

Bill, would you also consider these species (Cyperus and/or Sparganium) as suitable non-invasive cover for minnows in a YP/SMB pond?

As far as the suitability of bur-reed and sedge for minnow cover, What are the experieces of the readers with regards to how deep these two typically grow??. For me bur-reed and sedge rarely grow in water any deeper than a couple inches. I prefer the shallow minnow cover areas to be 6" to 2 ft deep.

Russ your book description agrees with my comment that bur-reed does not have a triangular ("tri-cross section") stem. Until we get a close-up photo of the fruit / seed head of Cecil's plant and from what we can clearly see, every body is correct in their identificaton. It's all a guess or matter of opinion.