I paddled through Turtle Cove and over to Heron Cove, and then finally came back around the south side of Dolloff Island. Now that the water has warmed up the aquatic plants are really taking off, and areas that were exposed during the October drawdown appear to have completely recovered.
I found three nice examples of native plants that have invasive look-a-likes: Water Marigold (very similar looking to Fanwort), Common Elodea or Waterweed (very similar to Hydrilla and Brazilian Elodea), and Water Naiad (very similar to Spiny Naiad). You really need to pluck a piece of these plants out of the water so you can take a close look. Be sure to familiarize yourself with these plants and know how to tell them apart from their invasive look-a-likes. Try the look-a-like quiz on the AIS webpage of the CLCA website.
My patrol tract through the north side of Zone 1. Note you can place a marker on the map to note anything interesting that you see like I did here. The marker in Heron Cove (lower right of the number 1) is the spot where I found a nice growth of Water Marigold.
Native Water Marigold that I found in Heron Cove. It is almost identical to Fanwort. Both plants have opposing pairs of fan-shaped, branch-divided leaves and have a cylindrical bottle-brush appearance in the water. However, the leaves on Fanworts attach to the stem via a short petiole, whereas on Water Marigolds they attach directly to the stem as you see above.
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