Native Plants
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Thursday - June 11, 2015
From: Troy, IL
Region: Midwest
Topic: Plant Lists, Water Gardens, Herbs/Forbs
Title: Aquatic Plants for a Small Pond in Missouri
Answered by: Anne Van Nest
QUESTION:
We have a small backyard pond (4' x 5' x 2' deep) with a shelf for marginal plants, and a pump that feeds a nice little creek and waterfall into the pond. We don't really want fish, but we'd like to keep the water clean of algae and looking awesome. Can you recommend some plants native to the St. Louis, MO area for such a small backyard pond? Everything I've found online seems to be for larger ponds, or ponds with fish, or includes invasive plants.ANSWER:
Try a search through the Native Plant Database on the www.wildflower.org website. Select Missouri, herbaceous, perennial, full sun and wet to get a decent list of terrestrial, marshy, bog and pond plants to review. You can tame some of the more vigorous plants by keeping them in a container on your pond shelf.
Some native aquatic plants to consider include:
Alisma subcordatum (American water plantain)
Asclepias perennis (Aquatic milkweed)
Caltha palustris (Yellow marsh marigold)
Decodon verticillatus (Swamp loosestrife)
Justicia americana (American water-willow)
Ludwigia palustris (Marsh seedbox)
Potamogeton nodosus (Knotty pondweed)
Sagittaria latifolia (Broadleaf arrowhead)
Utricularia gibba (Bladderwort)
Lastly the Missouri Department of Conservation have an article on Water Gardening online by John Whitley that discusses using native plants. There might be some cultural tips there that will help.
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