Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Identifying plants Plant ID Please…

Can someone tell me what this is and if it’s beneficial or invasive? Do I want it in my pond? It was growing in the bottom of a nearby creek bed and I have access to lots of it. Thanks!

Crush some in your fingers and see if it smells kinda garlicky and might want to spread it out in a white plate with water for a better picture of it for a positive id

SWAG : Fanwort

Fanwort aka Cabomba - Rooted Aquatic Weed
Cabomba caroliniana is a submerged aquatic plant. It produces red stems 10 to 30 feet long. Fan shaped leaves branch opposite of one another along the stems. Leaves can be green to dark green and sometimes reddish brown.

Fanwort flowers grow at the surface, but the rest of the vegetation stays submerged. Flowers consist of small white petals and a yellow center similar to a daisy.

That’s what I thought after comparing pics with what’s available in this forum and on the TX A&M site, JE Craig. Thanks! Do I want it in my pond?

Not so sure it is fanwort. I don't see the characteristic red stems of fanwort. Does it ever get the white flowers. Flowers sometime during the summer makes it fanwort. Did you crush some of it and smell it to see if it has a musty or garlic odor which means it is Chara normally has longer stem length between "leaf" whorls. Do the individual thin leaflets have smooth or with a few tiny jagged edges?

I didn’t crush any or smell it, but I will next time I’m by there. I didn’t see any flowers and it’s growing in 2-3- clumps on the floor of the creek bed.

DeerTX - If you can get a real good close picture of the needle shaped leaves on each whorl that will be a big help in identifying it. You have take care to get a sharp focus close up picture. If it is Chara it should produce what some call a mild skunk-like odor when stems and leaves are crushed. .

So it didn’t smell like a skunk. It really had no smell when I crushed the stems and leaves other than the smell of musky pond muck. Here’s a closer pic….

Okay - Some species of Chara do not have a strong odor. See those bumps on many of the individual 'leaf-lets' or needle-like leaves? IMO those are the "fruits" that are egg bearing cases called oogonia and about the size of pin points. They are what makes the needle like leaves have jagged edges. If one looks very closely the stems are divided into joints of the stem and not tubular and no connective tissue which technically makes them a form of algae. Most of the Chara species live in water with higher carbonates. Chara has a soft water counterpart called Nitella.

Thanks, Bill! So you think it’s a species of Chara? I should consider transferring some to my pond?

Some people like Chara as a pond plant and ducks supposedly like to eat it. I do not like Chara for mainly 2 reasons. 1. It is hard to kill when it gets overabundant and forms a thick bed on the pond bottom, grass carp at 8-12 per acre will eat most of it. Chara when abundant causes the water to be too clear and this allows Chara to cover the entire pond bottom. 2. It prevents water circulation to the mud water interface and this zone becomes anoxic, very smelly, and profuse with black sediments lacking oxygen which is why the sediment is black. Invertebrates cannot live in the anoxic black layer of pond bottom. Black sediments are releasing phosphorus causing other problems. If you are getting it from a stream the basal sediment of the Chara might not be black due to the moving water current and spates (flushing). I would never plant it in a pond. IMO there are much better types of submerged vegetation.

Since you live in warmer winter TX look into buying some spiral eel grass plants (also known as corkscrew). maybe start using 10-50 "starts" from sellers on the internet. Then see if it lives one full year in your pond .Waterfowl like to eat these plants. I usually first plant it in a wash basin or tub with heavy garden dirt placed in the shallow beach area or deeper to keep geese away for a summer or for a full year and let it spread throughout the tub; then transplant all the reproductions where you want it to get growing. It spreads but not nearly as fast as Chara. All plants spread some faster than others. IMO and experience it is best to start in mid to late spring, let it grow all summer then transplant plants in fall. All eel grass plants keep the sediment clean and healthy. Fish can hunt through it. It does not get as tall as standard eel grass (Vallisneria americana) that grows up to 6ft tall and spreads faster than spiral (corkscrew). Also good is Vallisneria torta or any of the short forms.
Another similar very good submerged short plant for the bottom is dwarf Sagittaria. (Sagittaria subulata). Similar to eel grass but grows shorter 4"-6" tall. See my private message to you.

Both of the mentioned plants do not like northern winters with ice cover.

Main problem with these plants is the geese love to eat them. Sometimes they need to be protected with tree brush plaid on top and around them until they become well established.