Tbar - The plants in your picture appear to be lotus. I planted a lotus in my newest (3rd) pond this spring and it has already sent leaves 8' out into the pond from the original planting site. No flowers yet, but the pond bottom is clay. I have previously shied away from lotus due to their reputation as being aggressive, but decided to experiment a bit on this newest pond. My 2nd pond is looking pretty nice around the edges this year as well (water lilies and other plants spreading and blooming well). The picture above is of my 1st pond. My goals are related to wildlife and I use a lot of natives, but am not a purist. Many plants currently considered "naturalized" were introduced in the last couple hundred years. Of course so were those we fight as invasives!