Top part of Zone 14 + all of Zone 15

A perfect day of full sun and low wind to wander from the beach at the old Cove Campground and go north into all of zone 15 – a section of the lake that seems often left to the end of the season.

Moving north along the top of zone 14, and around Ship Island, I found light and very familiar native vegetation until I reached the cove just north of Ship Island. In the southern end of that cove (grid #482) the water depth was shallower and very dense with native vegetation among the rocks and boulders, including pretty displays of tiny purple flowers hovering over a mass of submerged bladderworts; moving into the top of that cove I found the same field of dark Aquatic Moss of several years ago but now the field is larger and 3’deep. When touching it I was met with a surprising lushness instead of the usual stiff wiry presence that is expected from that plant. The golden color of the moss was due to the heavy amount of aged Filimentous algae permeating the field.

The rest of zone #15 had the familiar native vegetation with no new and different plants or amounts of growth display. In fact the amount of vegitation was generally quite low along the shores covered except for the small coves.

Back in the shallow waters at the Cove campground’s beach (zone 14, grid #469) I found an unusual 3-4 ft. square area of Native Elodea with a handful of single stalks of Common Water Primrose standing 6-8" tall in the shallow water like sentries with their simple pairs of lobed tawny colored leaves along the stems.

A surprise was to find, attached along a stem of Spiral Pondweed and on some Native Elodea, tiny light green balls of Rivularia (nontoxic cyanobacteria found consistantly in this lake over the years.) Amy Smagala helped to identify those when I found them 3-4 yrs ago for the first time looking like fragile iridescent globes on plants. These were tinier and well-formed light green orbs.