Pond landscaping - glorious quillworts

One of the side benefits of pond renovation is you have new spaces to landscape, and this includes aquatic plants.  So JFTHOI the Phactor has decided to include a pot of quillwort, Isoetes.  This little known clubmoss is more common that most people know because it grows in places where most people don't look very close and it doesn't stand out except to a trained eye.  So this won't generate any rave reviews from people, but the point is knowing it's there.  Quillworts are the last living representatives of an ancient lineage of arborescent clubmosses, now reduced to little wetland plants.  And unless you've been frogging around down on your hands and knees in a shallow wetland, with an experienced botanist, you'll have never seen a quillwort.  Of course, once you have, you'll say, "Uh, that's what we're down here frogging around in the mud and water for?"   Yes!  As you can see the long slender leaves look sort of reedy-rushy except for the sporangia that are embedded in the base of fertile leaves, but you won't see them without pulling one up.  This is a big species with leaves a hand span long.  Just the thought of having such an ancient plant growing in our pond will be a source of considerable satisfaction. Image complements of Show Ryu, Wikimedia Creative Commons.