Floating plants

• These float on the water and can move around the entire pond.
• Just like plants with floating leaves, they provide shade in the water.
• Floating plants also provide oxygen.
• Ground roots will develop if the roots of floating plants come into contact with the bottom of the pond in shallow water. However, floating plants should never be planted in baskets.
• If they multiply too vigorously, a net is the best solution.
• When autumn comes, it is best to remove them before they die. The less organic material there is decaying in the pond, the less mud and marsh gas will be produced.
• Floating plants such as water chestnut (Trapa natans), largely die off but overwinter as residual winter tubers on the bottom.
• A variety like water soldier (Stratiotes aloides) sinks deeper into the water as it gets colder, and rises up again when it gets warmer.
• Varieties of (sub)tropical origin which cannot survive our winters, like water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) and the blue-flowering water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes).

Floating plants:

Frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae)
Water soldier (Stratiotes aloides)
Mexican mosquito fern (Azolla mexicana)
Water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes)
Star duckweed (Lemna trisulca)
Floating watermoss (Salvinia natans)
Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)
Water chestnut (Trapa natans)