Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Weed in middle of lake in picture & removing?

Hi,

I'm still a novice on pond / lake owning and am still working my way through the PondBoss books.

Has anyone ever had a weed like the one in the picture? Anyone perchance might know what it is?

I assume that I can just get into the lake and pull the weeds up by the root to get rid of them...but please let me know if that's not right or if I do more harm than good to the lake by doing so. I haven't removed any vegetation from the lake before.

Many thanks

You need two things for a positive ID:

1. Close-up photos
2. Bill Cody

Your photo was taken too far away from the plant to distinguish any plant-details, but I'm guessing it is TORPEDO GRASS - or possibly maidencane.

Kelly has more experience than me with weeds similar to those in the picture what ever they are. I am hesitant to make a guess of weeds from UK. Yes get a close up picture that is clear and not blurry. If they have seeds, seed heads or flowers get a picture of them. Your picture is like trying to identify trees in a woods from 200-300ft away - pretty difficult.

Hi Kelly and Bill,

I won't be back at the lake until about 2 weeks from now, but I've seen some other forum posts + the pictures they take and I'll make sure I get similar pictures to help!

Many thanks for your responses -- very much appreciated

Hi Bill, Kelly,

I've got some much better, bigger photos...hope that helps.

There are some bright green shoots that make me think its some type of grass; the green shoots look and feel like grass but I've never seen grass with that long of a root etc.

Would love to hear your expert opinion :-)

Many thanks

I know this may sound nit-picky, but I can probably tell more from the original photos than from the latest group. The sample shown in the latest photos looks like it was unraveled off of the head of a weed-eater.
Ideally, one should take a reasonably close-up photo of the plant in its natural state of growth (say, from 5' away) which shows "how it grows" in relation to its environment.
Then, gently isolate and extract an individual plant (or pair of plants if connected) and spread it across a contrasting background - with a coin laid next to it for scale-reference - and take a closer-up photo (2') of the entire plant; and possibly an even still closer photo of the leaves which shows how they (2 or more leaves) connect to the stem - and also snap a close-up of any seed-head formations.
These, and many other visual or sensory clues, are used to assess a plant's identity.
-
edit: Just now remembered that you're in the UK, which may explain why your plant doesn't resemble anything with which I'm familiar. Still, some photos using the above guidelines might help with the ongoing investigation.

I 2nd Kelly's insightful comment about getting useful photos of water plants for identification.

I'm not close to the lake...but I'll retake the photos per your instructions!

Thanks for your input, very much appreciated