Help identifying this pond plant? Elodea/Anacharis of some kind maybe? It was thriving in 35F/1C degree water in New England, USA

[walruseggman]

Pulled this out of the water near the shore at a local pond last week here in New England, USA. The ice had not yet covered it up, but it was doing fine. The pics here in my 10 gallon blackworm tank are 2 days after I had pulled it from the pond. (That's A.C. airline tubing for scale if needed)

Looks like it wants to grow immersed here, not sure if that's because of the shallow water depth, but it was just under the water surface in the pond. The tan "stems" (more like runners, almost) and white hair-like roots are part of the plant.

Figured it would be a great plant to get a summer tub up and going even earlier in the season this spring, but I like to know what my plants are before doing something like that.

Best matches I can find are perhaps some sort of elodea or anacharis, but nothing I find seems to look exactly like this. Any input greatly appreciated!

[Guppysnail]

It does not look like anacharis elodea. Google aquatic plants native to the specific area you are in you may find it. It sure is cute and freezing still growing 😯

Anacharis elodea densa in my tank for comparison in case I’m not seeing it correctly 

[walruseggman]

Thanks guppysnail! Agree with you, I didn't think it was densa,

I did take a look at all the New England aquatic plant guides I could find. After broadening my search, I think I've found the correct identification:

Elodea canadensis, aka Canadian pondweed, Anacharis canadensis, or waterweed, and close relative to the elodea/anacharis densa.

Various sites confirm it thrives in cold water, with some suggesting it stays green and over-winters under the ice. Neat!

I think this will make a great summer tub plant. If anyone is interested, I'll keep track and relay how it does in the various temps and conditions.

 

[walruseggman]

Just for posterity, here there are, doing fairly well in the frigid pond today. Understand that this is a fairly common plant and everything, just that this is my first encounter with such a cold tolerant aquatic plant, and so I thought it was worth showing. 😃