Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Identifying plants What the heck is that?

Weird plant in the pond. It is growing like a vine in the water. The main vine is purple. It has an oval or kidney shaped leaf. Under each leaf is a bulb. The stem goes into the bulb then out to the leaf.

What the heck is that?

It looks a lot like this Water Hyancinth except it's growing on a vine structure

Yep that is probably a water hiacinth. Its propagation is via purple stolons.
Take it out as soon as you can. It s super invasive and it doesn t tolerate low temperatures. It will grow like hell in summer covering all your pond and will die in winter lowering your DO level.

That's what it looks like to me as well. Big problem with it in the Santee Cooper system in SC.

I would think in Ohio it will just freeze and die this winter.

I have it in my big pond....for me anyway it's the lesser of several evils. It absorbs the nutrients out of the water as well or better than other plants I've had, and because my banks are steep it doesn't grow out very far.

As noted it will absorb a lot of nutrients for its size. It should help reduce dissolved nutrient problems and compete well against bluegreen algae, & surface scums. Since it floats it should be relatively easy to harvest the plants and compost them in the Fall. Letting it die as winter approaches and then allow it to recycle the nutrients would be counter productive.

That's what I'm thinking.