Are you wondering which are the most suitable aquatic plants for ponds or lagoons? If you have space in your garden or land and you are thinking of adding a pond, surely, one of the doubts that will have arisen will be what type of aquatic plants to put in the pond and what plants to put around it. We advise you to consult a specialist for better advice by explaining the details of your area well, but also from EcologíaVerde we want to help you get to know these plants better so that you can decide more easily.
For this reason, we have prepared this article on more than 50 aquatic plants for ponds, lakes and lagoons, among which you can find floating, deep-water, margin or riverbank, oxygenating and marsh plants.
Types of aquatic plants for ponds, lakes and lagoons
Before explaining the names of aquatic plants for ponds and talking a little about their main characteristics, we want to point out that, in general, this type of vegetation can be classified into three large groups of aquatic plants:
- Riverside or margin plants.
- Floating plants.
- Plants for deep waters.
To decide which species of aquatic plants for ponds and lagoons are best for your garden or land, we recommend that you consult with an expert and that you take into account a number of important aspects when deciding on the species:
- What is the size or dimensions of the pond?
- Is it just a decorative or natural pond or is it also for bathing or playing?
- How much sun does it get throughout the day?
- What is the average temperature throughout the year?
- Will there be fish or other animals?
Floating aquatic plants
Surely you have heard of or seen floating plants, those that stay on the surface of the water. If you are wondering what the floating pond plants are so that you can get to know them and decide whether to put one in your outdoor area and which one, pay attention because these are the most common species of floating aquatic plants for ponds:
- Pistia or water lettuce
- Water hyacinth or camalote
- Hydrocharis morsus-ranae
- Salvinia natans or water fern
- Alloid Stratoids
Aquatic plants for deep-sea ponds
If in your case the pond you have at home is rather deep because you have enough land, or even a natural pond that was there before, we recommend that you also consider using plants for ponds that are deep water:
- Nymphaea odorata alba blanca
- White Nymphaea alba
- Nymphaea gladstoniana
- Nymphaea chromatella
- Yellow Nymphaea gladstoniana
- Nymphaea carnea rosa
- Nymphaea rose arey pink
- Nymphaea laydekeri rosea red
- Red Nymphaea atraction
- Red Nymphaea stellata
- Nymphaea vill. Yellow Benetti
Also, as it is easier for there to be more biodiversity in this type of water, these are also plants for fish and amphibian ponds.
Shore or margin aquatic plants
To decorate and give more life to your pond, it is certainly advisable to plant some plants on the shore as well. In this area you can plant both aquatic plants, making sure that their root is in the water but at the edge of it, or plants that are not strictly water but do grow well if they are close to it, being able to place them half a meter or a little more from the shore.
These are the riverside or pond margin aquatic plants that we encourage you to place in your garden:
- Achoruscalamus
- Coves
- Caltha palustris
- Cyperus papyrus
- Cyperus alternifolius
- Equisetum arvense
- Glyceria variegata
- Iris pseudoachorus
- Sibiric Iris
- Glauca Reeds
- Juncus maritimus
- Inflexus reeds
- Juncus acutus
- Aquatic Mentha
- Misolis palustris
- Pontederia lanceolata
- Pontederia cordata
- Schoenoplectus lacustris
- Scirpus cebreinus
- Scirpus lacustris
- Thalia dealbata
- Tipha latifolia
- Tipha
- Minimal Tipha
- Veronica vegabunda
Oxygenating aquatic plants
Apart from the previous classification of the three main groups, there are other ways to classify the different types of aquatic plants for ponds, for example we can talk about oxygenating or oxygenating plants that are those that help to renew oxygen in the water.
These are the different types of oxygenating plants for ponds that we recommend:
- Cerarophyllum demersum
- Elodea crispus
- Canadian Elodea
- Myriophyllum aquaticum
- Myriophyllum verticillatum
- Normal Vallisneria
- Vallisneria gigantea
- Vallisneria tortifolia
What is a marsh pond plant
Aside from oxygenating pond plants and the above classification, there are other types or ways to classify water plants. To finish we talk about the ideal marsh plants for ponds where we want there to be a lot of biodiversity.
But what are marsh plants? These are plants that have vertical leaves, following the stem, and that protrude from the water or from the edge or shore. They are ideal for shallow water areas or for margins or banks, as this is where they thrive best. In addition, their roots help regulate the pond’s water, providing oxygen, nutrients, and filtering out impurities.
They are also interesting to place in a pond in your garden because they attract animals, or you can place them there, as they serve as a refuge for different species of dragonflies, butterflies and other insects, frogs and other amphibians and birds.
Among the marsh plants for ponds we recommend:
- Rushes
- Iris
- Cyperus
- Equisetum
Now that you know all the recommendations we give you about aquatic plants for ponds, we recommend you also consult this other article from EcologíaVerde in which we give you tips for good maintenance of your pond.
If you want to read similar articles to +50 aquatic plants: names and characteristics – with images, we recommend you visit our Garden Care category.
