The sun is out, the summer months are here and plant life is blooming. Without aquatic plants our watercourses would be dull, but they do offer some advantages other than beauty – fish rely on aquatic plants for their food and habitat, they provide a safe cover for nesting areas and help filter pollutants in the water.
However, if some aquatic plants are not kept in check, that once beautiful watercourse that was full of aquatic life can become covered in extremely invasive plants, restricting any recreational activity and slowly killing the watercourse and all life within it.
Some invasive plants to watch out for this summer:
Spiked Water Milfoil (Myriophyllum Spicatum)
It is a submerged plant with a slender, circular stem which is olive green and has feathery leaves usually arranged in whorls of four or five. The flowers are spiked and reddish in colour and in the summer they will bloom above the water’s surface.
Canadian Pondweed (Elodea Canadensis)
It is a native North American aquatic plant. The leaves are bright green and are in whorls of three around the stem with a small white or pale purple flower which floats on the surface of a watercourse.
Both are extremely invasive and without the correct method of control they will spread rapidly, suffocating the watercourse.
Mechanical cutting is the best control for both weeds, the cut vegetation must be removed from the water to avoid regrowth and de-oxygenation. Aquatic Solutions uses the amphibious Truxor machine with its range of cutting and dredging tools, enabling aquatic weed control in any pond with a unique ease that no other company can provide. Contact us now to make sure your ponds the best it can be during the summer.
For a full list of invasive aquatic weeds take a look at this weed guide.
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