These plants are usually attached to the bottom of a body of water, but they can be free-floating as well. Examples of submerged aquatic plants include many Potamogetons or pondweeds, Myriophyllum , and Ceratophyllum . Floating-leaved plants have their leaves floating on the surface of the water. Some plants with floating leaves also have submerged leaves, but they are still considered floating-leaved aquatics. Aquatic plants which exhibit this floating-leaved form include water lilies and duckweed.
Emergent plants have some parts of the plant in contact with the air above the water's surface.
Examples of emergent aquatic plants include bur-reeds and Sagittaria or Arrowhead. In Colorado, aquatic plants can be found from the plains out east to subalpine lakes high in the Rocky Mountains, in a wide variety of water bodies. Aquatic plants grow in ponds and streams, peat bogs, and abandoned gravel pits. Typically, ponds support a more diverse variety of aquatic plants than streams do because there are more nutrients available, and the water moves at a much slower pace in ponds. In addition, plant growth in ponds is a reflection of the conditions of the body of water including water depth, nutrient availability, soil type, and geology.