July 21 - Patrolled part of Page Brook from grid 3674 and 3663 to the entrance of the Channel. Ran into Maria and the Burkes as they were doing a training session so Page Brook got well covered today.
In addition to the usual cast of characters including Bur-reed, Thread grass, Bladderwort, White water lillies, Spatterdock, Pond weeds, Floating-heart, Pipewort and some nice Pickerelweed that still had its flowers I saw some native naiad in grid 3752. The leaves were fine and I did not see any serrations on the leaves that would suggest the invasive species (see photo below).
The majority of the Bladderwort (and there is a lot of it) is Common bladderwort (Utricurlaria vulgarisms) but I also saw a different species, Large purple bladderwort (Utricularia purpurea) in grid 3673. It initially had me concerned since the leaves were arranged in whorls that were well spaced along the stem so it looked a bit like Fan-wort or Milfoil. After carefully cutting a piece I could clearly see the bladders which for this species are located at the tips of the leaves (see photo below).
Hi Tim - Thanks for your description of Purple Bladderwort. On my side of the lake it is the dominant species and blankets nearly all of Turtle Cove and at least some of Dolloff Cove. The key identification as you pointed out is the placement of the bladders on the tips of the leaves. I'm also beginning to see the emergence of the purple flower buds poking above the lake surface.
Purple bladderwort blanketing the bottom of Turtle Cove with stems of Pipewort poking through to the surface.
Buds on Purple bladderwort beginning to open