Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Identifying plants need help identifying weed...please!

As I've posted before, I have a severe infestation of something in my pond. I thought for sure it was a species of pondweed, and thanks to pondfrog, was preparing to bite the bullet and order some Whitecap... now, having seen a picture of widgeon grass, I am not as sure. I don't see widgeon grass listed as being controlled by Whitecap, and want to be sure I get something that will control it. Can anyone help with a positive identification? Thank you!

Tony

sparkplug, is it a relatively new pond (within the past couple of years)?

Try this site.

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/

The reason for asking is that I have something in my pond that looks very similar to that and it's not on the TAMU website. Bill Cody identified what I have as Narrow Leaf Pondweed.

That looks like Naiad to me. My best guess, Bushy Pondweed. Maybe Southern Naiad. And you have it bad. Lots of stuff will get rid of it, what is your fish status?

Thanks esshup- no, the pond is 40 years old. It was built as a swimming pond, so it was never stocked with fish, only what "found" their way in over the years. The weird thing is there are 3 other stocked ponds in a row next to this one, all seperated by no more than 75', and they do not have this weed. This pond never had it the 20 years I've been here, until now. I'm wondering if it came in with the HBG I stocked last year. Here's a couple more pics.

Thanks PondFrog, I stocked HBG in March of last year. They're doing well, caught one last week that was 12 ozs. Added approx 40 LMB to control reproduction of hybrids, everything was going according to plan until this weed showed up. Now my hybrids are spawning, and what offspring are created will have plenty of hiding spots from the LMB-thanks to this weed. Definitely not what I want.

Thanks ewest, yeah that site is where I've been trying to identify this weed. I've looked so much my head hurts. I can't tell if it's baby pondweed, sago pondweed, widgeon grass, or according to esshup, possibly a species on pondweed not listed. Geez, why do they have to look so similar to my untrained eye??

If you could, take a fresh sample and roll it up between your fingers and see if it has a smell.

Well, I sampled the weed from several areas around the pond, and I couldn't detect any smell other than the occasional odor of "pond".
Is that good or bad?

Thanks for your help
Tony

I won't speak for Pond Frog, but will guess he may have been asking because chara has a very distinct odor - sort of a cross between onion and garlic and something else musty and nasty - and there's a little resemblance with the stuff in your last set of pics. If you had chara, you'd have known it from the smell.

Yeah I got chara a ton of it!!! And although your picture looks kind of like it I don't belive that's what you have. The link Ewest gave you has Chara in it and you can see the difference. And you can SMELL that skunk grass as soon as you pull it out of the water!!

SPRKPLUG,

It looks like to me that you have Naid. Look at the Aquaplant website to verify, but I am pretty sure its naid.

Yes, I just wanted to verify it was not muskgrass or chara. That is easy to tell as soon as you pull it out and smell it. Now you have to figure out if you want to risk killing existing fish, or spend a little more money.

Also I am fighting a pond that was completely overrun with coontail, that has nothing like it from the source or even within miles. It all started with the original fish planting. We call it hitchhiking. I get it here and there, and when a stray fragment or two hits the right highly fertile pond it will just take over fast. So Naiad, either one of two varieites, but that is irrelevant. Diquot, Endothall or Fluridone. Depends on budget and risk aversion to existing fish population.

Thanks PF,now to decide if I can get by with "gentle" applications of Diquat to avoid fish kill, or go for broke with the fluridone.

That's a tough call. It's almost post emergent vs preemergent now. Fluridone is awesome in front of a growing season as soon as you see growth. Diquat is a hit it and kill it now. What I might do, if you care, is try a light treatment, low concentrate on 30-40%, if you have the time. I just would not go for th egusto this late in the game, as nature will knock it down sooner than later. Also, try to remove what you can vs. letting it sink and rot. I think just experimenting or treading lightly now is the way to go, and plan and be ahead of it next Spring. Always love results or after photos. Enjoy.

Sprkplug: although it may be splitting hairs due to their similarities, your plant is either southern naiad (Najas guadalupensis) or slender pondweed (potomogeton pusillus): two completely different genera - but very similar in structure and control-methods. However, slender pondweed seems to flourish earlier in the season and then dissipates to some degree as max-summer temperatures arrive - but not always. Probably depends on the pond's depth and amount of shade - both of which impact the pond's ability to resist/avoid high summer water-temps.
To positively ID the two plants: southern naiad has opposite leaf-arrangement along the stem (sometimes in whirls of 3 leaves) while slender pondweed has an alternating leaf-arrangement.