On a hot summer morning I drove up to paddle Pinantan Lake.   I launched near the marshy areas and explored the shallow bays.    Common water-crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis) had climbed above the water and was flowering.

Water smartweed (Persicaria amphibia) grows in wet mud on the shoreline or in shallow bays where stems and flowers rise above the waterline in summer.

Along one shore were large numbers of bladderwort (Utrilicularia sp.).   The stems grow from rhizomes and in summer terminal yellow flowers are displayed.   The plant is partly carnivorous, capturing insects in a bladder-like cavity.

These bladderworts were in a bay filled with duckweed (Lemna minor).

In another channel, marsh cinquefoil (Potentilla palustris) was in bloom with their reddish-purple terminal flowers.   It is a perennial that grows from rhizomes, in the mud, in the lake.

And on the shore were some deadnettles/hedgenettles (Stachys sp.).   I have spotted them in a few places, but references don’t seem to think they exist in the Interior.

Deadnettles/hedgenettles are members of the mint family.

Aquatic flowering plants are at their best in mid-summer so I will be on the lookout for more in the upcoming days on the lakes.