Calm waters with late summer sun provided an easy paddle although the light at high noon was just doable. I carefully patrolled Deans’ Cove and did not find anything outside a light growth of the familiar native plants, predominated by different bladderworts. A few days ago, John Edgarton patrolled the islands and buoys that dot the north side of zone 7 so I chose not to cover the same area since he reported barely any growth along that route.
It was deep in Wiley Cove where I found a really nice collection including 2 new plants:
Native milfoil + Coontail + Common Water Primrose—all found there before, but in addition, was another variation of Aquatic Moss (Amy helped to identify and added that it wasn’t necessary to worry about the genus.)
Amy also identified the second new plant I found and called it Callitriche, a Water starwort. At first glance I thought I had Duckweed but saw that it was quite different, presenting with a long stem and single 1/8” green petal-shaped leaves. While both are aquatic plants, duckweed is a floating plant with simple, leaf-like structures that lack a clear stem and are not rooted to the lake bottom unlike water starwort that is; the scientific name for Water starwort is usually "Callitriche" while Duckweed belongs to the "Lemna" genus.
Also found some Rivularia presenting as a mass about the size of a single golf ball nestled into the plants along the same shore. I seem to find these annually, at this time of year, somewhere on this lake.
Left, Callitriche, a Stone wort; Right, Aquatic moss
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