Our ponds, lakes, rivers, streams and oceans are virtual wildflower gardens, filled with beneficial examples of aquatic vegetation. Peat Moss, which grows in dense greenish-brown floating carpets, is found in bogs throughout the state. While Maine has begun to examine peat as an energy source, its largest use is as an agricultural product. Waterweed Anacharis canadensis has thin green-brown leaves in whorls of three on thin stalks up to six feet tall. Its relative, Elodea spp.
Pickerel weed is another typical pond plant.
It has a showy spike of purple flowers, leaves that look like narrow inverted hearts on upright stalks, and averages two feet in height. In freshwater, plant life is used in part to determine whether a body of water is a pond or a lake. A pond is defined as a shallow, calm, muddy-bottomed body of water with rooted plants that grow even in the deepest portions. A lake, by comparison is too deep for plants to grow except at the shoreline. While most water lilies are found in ponds, the Little Water Lily Nuphar micropyllum grows in the deeper water of lakes.