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Originally Posted by MAXUM
... I've noticed another plant growing in several lakes, one which I never ever recall seeing before. It forms a mat of small green slender leaves, almost like grass across the bottom of the lake and sends up, typically later in the summer months a long, sometimes very long stem with a single little bud on the end that sticks out of the water usually between 6" and a foot. This stuff seems to be growing everywhere now, what the heck is it? It seems to be rather invasive as well.
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I don't know the name of it, but that particular plant was growing off my place 50 years ago, so it is probably native (not invasive).
The stem looks like a very long (40-inches) length of spaghetti, with a pencil-eraser-sized bud on top. Though fragile, it's a perfect dragonfly perch.
Over the years, these plants have actually
decreased here, as the bottom is now covered with waterlogged sticks and bark fragments, limiting its spread. Excessive wakes in May and June's high water pull all manner of forest into the lake: moss, soil, mushrooms, sticks, bark, rocks, pine needles, branches -- once, even a bird's nest!
Later, when the stalks grow to the surface, the wakes pull out the delicate stalks, which may be disrupting it in its native sites and allowing it to establish elsewhere in Winnipesaukee.