Aquatic Plant ID

Overview

Send photographs of the aquatic plants growing in your lake and get species identification back — along with a clear answer on whether each one is native to your region or an invasive that warrants action.

No sampling kit, no shipping, no waiting for a survey to be scheduled. Photographs from a dock, a boat, or a shoreline walk are usually enough.

The invasives most often reported by Lake Pulse subscribers: Eurasian watermilfoil, hydrilla, curly-leaf pondweed, water hyacinth, and Brazilian elodea.

What problem does this solve for our lake?

Native and invasive aquatic plants look alike to almost everyone, and the distinction carries real consequences in both directions. Treating a native bed is expensive, counterproductive, and increasingly the wrong answer — native plants stabilise sediment, provide fish habitat, and compete against invasives. Removing them clears ground for the thing you were worried about. Missing an invasive is worse. Eurasian watermilfoil forms dense mats that crowd out natives and end swimming and boating in a bay. Hydrilla grows from lakebed to surface and outcompetes everything. Curly-leaf pondweed emerges early, displaces native species, and causes an oxygen crash when it dies back mid-summer. Every one of these is dramatically cheaper to manage in the first season than the third. The window between arrival and establishment is where the money is saved, and identification is the only thing standing in that window.

What's included?

• Species identification from photographs you submit
• A native or invasive determination for each species identified, specific to your region
• Guidance on which findings warrant action and which do not
• Notes on what to do next where an invasive is confirmed, including who to report it to
• Results filed to your lake's account

What's not included

• Field survey or in-person visit. This works from your photographs.
• Mapping or quantification of bed area. That needs the Invasive/Native Weed Drone Survey.
• Guaranteed identification from poor photographs. Some species cannot be separated visually and need a physical specimen.
• Official invasive-species reporting. Your state agency has its own confirmation protocol, and we will tell you what it is.
• Treatment, permits, or applicator services

Requirements

• Clear photographs — several angles, close up, ideally with the plant partly out of the water so leaf structure and stem arrangement are visible
• A scale reference where you can manage it. A hand or a ruler in frame helps considerably.
• Location on the lake for each plant photographed, and depth if you know it
• Realistic expectations. Some genera cannot be separated from a photograph, and you will be told when that is the case.
• A Plus, Lake Admin, or PRO subscription to have results loaded into your Lake Pulse account
• Contact the Lake Pulse Boathouse if you have questions.