 So identifying aquatic plants can be quite difficult. A lot of people get nervous when they get across them. People haven't spent much time looking at plants and looking at different parts. So today I'm going to try to show you guys different components you can look at on plants and to help you ID them or to send them off to an extension specialist or a regional biologist so they can help you in assisting and figuring out what these plants are for you. So over here I have a range of different plants. They range from russus, sedges and even just broadleaf plants. So the first thing that we kind of look at is where is the plant growing? Is it growing emergent like against the shoreline or breaking through the water? Is it submerged where the roots are still in the soil or the water bank and growing under the water surface or is it truly floating to where the roots are hanging from the surface of the water and not penetrating the soil below? So once you have that you can kind of go on and look at the leaf structure and arrangement. A lot of these plants will have different kind of leaves whether they're growing at different nodes or just a straight up stalk and you can look at different arrangements such as alternate opposite and whirl. So opposites when they're growing at the same node on the same part world will be growing around the stem in a circle and then alternate will be switching back and forth on different sides. So here we have different things such as different russus which are typically round not to be confused with sedges which is typically done sedges have edges but both of these things are not truly true. Some sedges can be round and some russus could have edges. However the most helpful piece anyone can do to identify plants is looking at a seed head the flowers or the inflorescence. So an inflorescence is a cluster of flowers found typically on the stalk of a plant such as on this rush or even on this sedge. Also different other kind of leaf structures we have is kind of like the Sagittaria which is common aerial head it's known by a distinct two flaps coming down and then we also have some more grass like plants. If you notice on this there's different nodes which are the big suspended areas and a helpful place to identify these kinds of plants is to notice that the leaf is attached directly to a node or if it has a sheath coming off of it instead. So keep holding it to why we need to identify plants is when we treat them in ponds or small lakes and pound mints and such the different herbicides affect different ones more effectively so whether they're broad leaf or just submerged in the water we have to use a different herbicide to effectively kill it control it or manage them. Now if you're unsure of a plant and you need a storm for later on used to be sent on to a biologist you can attach to put them in a ziploc bag with a wet paper towel on it and try to get just the paper towel damp store as much of the plant as you can we're talking about as much as the roots the stem if you can get a flower influorescence that's very helpful and just store it in a damp bag make sure a damp paper towel in a bag and try not to seal the bag all the way just the majority of the way so that the plant can still breathe and live for a little while longer