Bushy Pond, Clinton - 2016
Bushy Pond is an 8.5 acre private pond in Clinton, CT with no public access. Our 2016 CAES IAPP survey is a resurvey from 2012. The 2016 survey found 18 species of native plants and one invasive variable-leaf watermilfoil (Myriophyllum heterophyllum) compared to 13 native species and the same invasive in 2012. In both surveys variable-leaf watermilfoil was the most dominant plant in the lake growing in a thin ring around most of the shoreline and in a shallow area near the center of the lake by transect 3. The coverage of variable-leaf watermilfoil has changed little from 2012 to 2016 with the exception of an increase in the center of the lake (transect three). All other plant species grew around the shoreline.
The CAES IAPP 2016
survey found three native lily pads yellow water lily (Nuphar variegata), white water lily (Nymphaea
odorata), and little floating heart (Nymphoides cordata) growing in small patches around the shoreline of the lake mixed with the emergent species pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata). We saw an increase in growth of snailseed pondweed (Potamogeton bicupulatus) from small patches around the lake in 2012 to larger patches most noticeably on the northwestern shoreline in 2016. We saw an abundance of low growing shoreline species in both survey years including waterwort (Elatine species), spikerush (Eleocharis species), sevenangle pipewort (Eriocaulon aquaticum), and golden hedge-hyssop (Gratiola aurea). Four bladderwort (Utricularia) species were found: flat-leaf bladderwort (Utricularia intermedia), common bladderwort (Utricularia macrorhiza), purple bladderwort (Utricularia purpurea), and floating bladderwort (Utricularia radiata) in small patches near transects one and three. Overall there was little change in the plant assemblages between the two survey years.
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Species
recorded in our 2016 survey of Bushy Pond.
Scientific Names *Invasive Species |
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| Little floating heart |
Ribbon-Leaf pondweed |
Snailseed pondweed | Waterwort | |
| Pickerelweed |
Sevenangle pipewort | Spikerush | White water lily | |
| Primrose-Willow | Slender naiad | Variable-Leaf watermilfoil* | Yellow water lily | |
| Purple bladderwort |
Small pondweed |
Water starwort | ||