Download identifying invasive aquatic plants

IDENTIFYING INVASIVE
AQUATIC PLANTS
“Healthy Lakes Need Aquatic Plants”
“Aquatic plants become a problem when they grow
excessively and alter the aquatic environment”
“Effective Weed Management is
Plant-specific and Multi-faceted”
INTEGRATED PLANT MGT: A Multi-Tool Approach
EARLY
DETECTION
&
RAPID
RESPONSE
MANAGEMENT
OF
ESTABLISHED
INVADERS
• Education
• “Weed Watching”
• Mechanical/Physical
• Preventative
Measures (boat
cleaning, etc.)
• Rapid treatment
at first sign of
introduction
• Chemical
PREVENTION
• Biological
“More invasive weeds are spreading
across the country and New York State”
“Citizen Monitoring: You Don’t Need to Be
Able to Identify Every Plant!”
Looking at Plants
Leaf Types
Leaf Margins
Leaf Arrangements
Leaf Type
Whole leaves
Divided leaves
What type is your leaf?
Whole Leaves
Divided Leaves
What makes a leaf a leaf?
Definition: A colored, usually green expansion, growing from the side of a stem or rootstock,
attached to the stem at the node.
What’s a leaflet?
One of the segments of a compound leaf
How many pairs of leaflets do you count?
LeafMargin
Margin
Leaf
Leaf Arrangement
How are the leaves arranged?
Water Chestnut
Native to Asia. Introduced into
NY in late 1800’s.
Annual. Produces thorny four
pointed nutlettes in early summer.
Each nutlet has 100+ new seeds.
Each seed can produce 10 to 15
rosettes.
Forms dense mats of floating
rosettes. Are rooted to the
bottom. Stems can be 15 ft long.
Water Chestnut
Floating leaves are triangular
with toothed edges. The tops
are waxy.
Submersed leaves are feather
like.
Small white flowers with four
petals can bloom late June
through September.
Inhabits lakes, ponds and slow
moving waters.
Locations
Keuka Lake Outlet Marsh
Otisco Lake
Oneida Lake
Cross Lake
Oswego River
Seneca River
Sterling Creek in Cayuga County
Montezuma Wildlife Refuge
Sodus Bay and Braddock Bay on Lake Ontario
European Frogbit
Originated from Eurasia.
Introduced to Ottawa in 1932
Annual. Reproduces by stolons
(runners) which produce
daughter plants or by turions
(overwintering buds) that grow
into new plants.
Spreads rapidly by means of
water, birds, boats, and
humans.
European Frogbit Identification
Free-floating (roots do not
anchor)
“Valentine Plant”. Leathery
heart shaped leaves that are
purplish red underneath
Leaves are a half an inch to
2 ¼ inches in length and width
Can look like a miniature
waterlily
White single 3-petalled flower
European Frogbit Identification
Broad arching lateral veins
with 75-90 degree angles
from mid-rib.
Found in quiet edges of rivers,
lakes and open marshes.
European Frogbit Locations
Oneida Lake.
Sterling Creek in Cayuga County
Montezuma Wildlife Refuge.
Water Chestnut and European Frogbit
Look-Alikes
Spatterdock
Larger heart shaped leaves
up to 16 inches long.
Yellow flowers.
Large mid-rib
Parallel or overlapping
round lobes
Water Chestnut and European Frogbit
Look-Alikes
Water Lily
Round leaves with pointed
lobes that are 6 to 8 inches in
length.
Many petalled white flowers
that float on water surface.
Veins on leaf radiate out from
where leaf and stem meet.
Hydrilla
Native to Southeast Asia. First found in
Florida in the 1950s.
One of the world’s most invasive plants.
Submersed and rooted. Can quickly grow
stems up to 30 ft long and form dense
mats.
Can grow up to a foot a day.
Small fragments can sprout roots and form
new populations.
Forms turions (overwintering bud).
Main form of propagation seems to be
tubers that overwinter in sediment.
Leaves are
about 5/8 of an
inch long.
Most have 5
leaves. Young
ones can have 3.
Most identifying
characteristics
are the small,
white to
yellowish potato
like tubers
attached to the
roots and white
floating flowers.
Hydrilla Locations
Found in the Cayuga Inlet
Undergoing
herbicide treatment this summer.
Erie Canal in North Tonawanda
Hydrilla Look-Alike
.
Brazilian Waterweed/Elodea
Invasive species found in Westchester
and Long Island (please report if found)
Lance shaped leaves about 1 inch long
and ¼ inch wide.
Arranged in whorls of 4 to 6 leaves.
Leaves are smooth. No teeth on mid-rib.
Small serrations on leaf margin hard to
see with naked eye.
Hydrilla Look-Alikes
Elodea
Leaves same size as hydrilla
but the small lance shaped
leaves are usually in whorls
of no more than 3.
Leaves appear and feel
smooth
Lack of spines at midrib
No tubers when pulled from
sediment.
Hydrilla Look-Alikes
Southern Naiad
Leaves are narrow and
ribbon-like with broad base
where they attach to the stem.
Leaves are in pairs on
opposite sides of the stem.
Leaf is tapered with small
teeth.
Leaves are deep green to
purplish green.
Eurasian Watermilfoil
Found in all Finger Lakes.
Submersed rooted perennial that
forms dense mats at the surface.
Can grow 20 ft long.
Has small reddish flowers raised
above the water on a spike that
blooms from July to August.
Reproduces from plant fragments.
Eurasian Watermilfoil
Feathery blunt-ended leaves less
than 2 inches long in whorls of 3
to 6 with 14 to 20 pairs of
thread like leaflets.
Leaves fall limp when removed
from water.
Green or reddish brown to purple
branching stems and the shoots
near the surface are reddish
brown.
Eurasian Watermilfoil Look Alikes
Northern Watermilfoil
Leaves tend to be more stiff and
bristly than Eurasian watermilfoil and
leaves tend to be stiff when removed
from the water.
Whorls of 4 to 5 feather like leaves
smaller than a quarter with 5 to 12
pairs of leaflets.
Tips and shoots lack reddish brown
color.
Fir tree shaped leaves.
Eurasian Watermilfoil Look Alikes
Coontail
Free floating submersed
perennial.
Leaves are not feather-like
Bristle like leaves are toothed
and have forked division.
Leaves are in tight whorls of 5
to 12 that are tight at the tips,
resembling a raccoons tail.
Leaves keep shape out of
water.
Curly Leaf Pondweed
Native to Eurasia, Africa and
Australia.
Submersed rooted perennial plant.
Spreads through fragmentation,
rhizomes, and turions (winter buds).
One of the first plant to emerge in
early spring and can grow under
ice.
Curly Leaf Pondweed
Flat spaghetti-like reddish brown
stems grow 1 to 3 feet long.
Reddish green leaves are finely
toothed, oblong in shape and typically
about 3 inches long. with distinct wavy
edges like lasagna noodles. Crispy
feel.
Spring leaves are wider and less
wavy than winter leaves.
Dormant in July and August.
Curly Leaf Pondweed Locations
Throughout New York State.
Otisco Lake
Skaneateles Lake
Cayuga Lake
Owasco Lake
Seneca Lake
Canandaigua Lake
Keuka Lake.
Curly Leaf Pondweed Look Alike
Clasping Leaf Pondweed
Wide oval shaped leaves with
smooth edges.
Leaf margins are slightly crisped.
Basal parts of leaves clasp straight
and slender plant stems.
“Prevention Is Crucial to Stopping Future
Infestations”
“Taking Care of Our Lake is Everyone’s
Responsibility”
Adopt-A-Shoreline Program
Volunteer Hand Pulling- Water Chestnut
No Aquatic Hitch-hikers
Responsible choices in aquariums and ponds
Lake-friendly PracticesYards & Homes
Reporting
Suspected hydrilla
http://ccetompkins.org/environment/invasivespecies/hydrilla-suspects
On-line citizen science portal
http://flicitizenscience.wordpress.com/submit-afinding/
iMapInvasives
http://www.imapinvasives.org/
Funding
Partial funding for these trainings is supported
though a grant/cooperative agreement from the
U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife
Service.