Introduction to aquatic

plant identification

N.T.H.Holmes
Nick Stewart
• Why study aquatic plants?
• Challenges
• Tools and books
• How to go about identifying aquatic plants
• Leaf form groups
• Some of the key characters in these groups
Why study aquatic plants?

• Fewer people looking at them, so under-recorded

• Many are very sensitive to their environment

• Many are declining

**** ? Pictures of bog pool and eutrophic lake

Claudia Ferguson-Smyth
Reasons for decline - Enrichment pollution
 Reasons for decline - Succession

**** Picture of overshaded pond

Reasons for decline - Introduced plants

Parrot’s Feather Myriophyllum aquaticum

Which
bog is in
good
condition?
One lake has lots of aquatic vegetation and the other very little.
Which one?
 A few have showy flowers

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Most do not
Many aquatic plants have their own families which will
be unfamiliar to terrestrial botanists – some examples

Duckweeds
Lemnaceae

Pondweeds
Potamogeton-
aceae

Water Starworts
Callitrichaceae

Water Milfoils
Myriophyllaceae
 Similar appearance in vastly different families
Water-plantain
Fern

Plantain

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Cabbage Lobelia

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 Books and keys

Colour guides
FSC guide
FSC foldout keys
BSBI Handbooks
Plant Crib
Riverine plants
German flora
My keys
 Survey aids

No tools - Flotsam
Photo: Sarah Pierce
Grapnels
Bathyscope
Litter picker
Easiest approach is to divide aquatic
plant into leaf-form types

Reduces the possibilities to 8-20

species/genera per group

Claudia Ferguson-Smyth
 Aquatic plant types
Spiky rosettes
Stringy
Feathery
Strappy
Floaters
Expanded translucent
Submerged expanded opaque
 Spiky rosettes –
Bottom growing rosettes of stiff, linear
or narrowly lanceolate leaves

N.T.H.Holmes
Isoetes - Quillworts
Littorella uniflora - Shoreweed
Lobelia dortmanna - Water Lobelia
Eriocaulon aquaticum - Pipewort
Baldelia ranunculoides - Lesser Water Plantain
Alisma (juvenile) - Water Plantains
Sagittaria (juvenile) - Arrowheads
Luronium natans - Floating Water Plantain
Subularia aquatica - Awlwort
Limosella - Mudworts
Ranunculus flammula - Lesser Spearwort
Stratiotes aloides - Water Soldier
 Stringy -
Narrow linear leaves

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 Feathery –
Compound leaves with linear segments

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Strappy –
Linear leaves >5 mm wide and over 20cm
long

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Floaters –
Expanded, opaque, floating leaves

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Expanded translucent leaves

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Expanded submerged opaque leaves
 Combinations

Stream Water Crowfoot – Ranunculus penicillatus

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Arrowhead
Sagittaria sagittifolia
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Water Starworts
Callitriche

Multiple
classifications
Some of the key characters
in each group
SPIKY ROSSETTES - Bottom growing rosettes of stiff, linear or
narrowly lanceolate leaves

• Leaf shape

• Cross section

• Root colour

• Subulate/ Presence of blade

 Shoreweed
Littorella uniflora

Awlwort – Subularia aqutica

Leaf shape
Water Lobelia
Lobelia dortmanna
 Cross
section

Plant Crib 1998

 Water Lobelia - Lobelia dortmanna

Quillwort – Isoetes lacustris

Root colour
Shoreweed Littorella uniflora
 Presence of a blade

Lesser Spearwort
Ranunculus flammula
Lesser Water plantain
Baldellia ranunculioides
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Water Soldier Stratiotes aloides

 STRINGY - narrow linear leaves

• Leaf arrangement – tufted, whorls, small groups, alternate

• Solid/translucent tissue
Alternate leaves Grouped leaves - Densely tufted leaves
- Potamogeton Zannichellia –Juncus bulbosus
 Swamp Stonecrop – Crassula helmsii
Callitriche brutia
Equal and opposite pairs
 Solid leaf, 2 tubes
Potamogeton pectinatus

Solid leaf,
flat
Eleogiton
fluitans
Translucent leaved –
Potamogeton pusillus
FEATHERY - compound leaves with linear segments

• Whorled or staggered (alternate) leaves

• Forked divisions or feather-like divisions

• Leaves divided once or multiple times

 Whorled -
Leaf arrangement Myriophyllum

Alternate - Ranunuculus

Staggered but sometimes

appears whorled – Hottonia
palustris
Leaf divisions
Forked - Ceratophyllum

More complex - Utricularia

Feather-like - Myriophyllum
 Leaf divisions
2-3 times divided – Apium 3-4 times divided – Oenanthe
inundatum aquatica
STRAPPY - Leaves linear, over 5 mm wide and more than 10x as
long as wide, floating or submerged (not including Elodea-types)

• Obvious stem

• Leaf venation

• Pointed/blunt

• Flat/spongy
 With obvious stems
Solid leaf with sheath and Translucent with stipules -
ligules – Grasses e.g Glyceria, Potamogeton
Catabrosa
 Schoeno-
Butomus Sparganium plectus Sagittaria
FLOATERS - Expanded opaque leaves, floating

• Small free floating to large floaters

• Leaf lobes

• Leaf venation
Ivy Duckweed Common Duckweed Great Duckweed
Lemna trisulca Leman minor Spirodela polyrhiza
 Water Fern Azolla
Least Duckweed Wolffia arhiza filiculoides
 Multi-lobed
Ranunculus

Leaf lobing

Unlobed – Potamogeton natans

Basal lobes – Nuphar lutea
 Circular venation
Hydrocharis
morsus-ranae
Leaf venation

Longitudinal veins
Potamogeton natans

Herring-bone – Persicaria amphibia

White Water Lily
Nymphaea alba Yellow Water Lily
Nuphar lutea
Expanded translucent leaves
(including Elodea types)

• Leaf arrangement - alternate/paired/whorled

• Presence of stipules
Stipule
 All Pondweeds Potamogeton have alternate leaves and stipules

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Canadian Pondweed Nuttall’s Pondweed
Elodea canadensis Elodea nuttallii
Yellow Water Lily has underwater leaves
Expanded submerged opaque leaves

• Miscellaneous group including drowned

terrestrial plants
 Expanded submerged opaque leaves

Six-stamened Waterwort
Elatine hexandra
Claudia Ferguson-Smyth
Water Purslane – Lythrum portula
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Hampshire Purslane – Ludwigia palustris

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Water Starworts - Callitriche

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Blinks – Montia fontana

Marsh Pennywort –
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Hydrocolyle vulgaris
 THANKS!

Nigel Holmes who provided many of the pictures

Claudia Ferguson-Smyth