Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Identifying plants Plant ID question

Okay I've been to the TAMU Aquaplant site and I'm trying to identify one of the types of vegetation growing in my small lake. My question is, is there an easy way to distinguish between Elodea, which apparently isn't a "bad" plant, and Hydrilla, which is? Both appear to look very similar, so before I jump the gun I want to make sure I have a correct identification.

Put a few peices in a baggie and take it to a local DNR office. They should be able to ID it for you.

The growth patterns of the two plants are quite similar, but with several key differences. Brazilian elodea has smooth and soft leaves which are always in whorls of three. Hydrilla leaves are harsh, brittle and scratchy to the touch and are arranged in whorls, up to five per node. Also, the blooms of Brazilian elodea emerge with two to four flowers from a single spathe, compared with the single flower of hydrilla.

My site has a link to the Florida Aquatic Plant site (long url) it has good descriptions of both plants, but Kelly is right on. www.lakework.com

In other words, much like with land plants and identifying between trachelospermum asiaticum vs abelia grandiflora, or Pyrus Calleriana Bradford vs Malus sp.

BTW elodea can quickly become a "bad" plant. Look not furhter than its name Brazilian elodea to figure it is an exotic and very invasive. If it is presnt it should be treated asap before spreading any further in the pond especially in the shallow areas.

Okay I put together a crappy website, and on here you'll see one rather fuzzy picture of a different plant I'm trying to identify but have no clue where to start. This stuff is growing almost to the surface in some places, and the ducks/geese seem to love it... any ideas?

2nd picture down on this page

New Info: Greg, our "friend" who is currently handling the lake says it's Elodea but he didn't even know any was on the lower lake where I am. Big surprise there. I'm still quite curious as to what the other plant is, I'll try to link the picture here.



It's not a very good picture but maybe someone can help.

EDIT: The inline image doesn't seem to work but if I paste the URL into a browser window it comes up fine. The image url is http://toph2o.freewebsitehosting.com/Lake8.jpg

Top - fire the pic my way - the link didn't work for me. A close-up is preferred, showing good detail; especially if it IS elodea. Kelly
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I think we have the elodea identified, the link is for a different plant I'm trying to ID. If you copy/paste the URL in your browser it should work, it's just not clickable.

I can see the picture now, but it is too fuzzy to make out any detail. A lot of things that it could be. Take a sample of the plant out of the water and photograph it next to a coin for size-comparison purposes. Leaf structure and stem arrangements need to be depicted in the photo. KD