A field guide you’ve probably never seen

Head to a bookstore and you’ll find field guides to just about everything: Birds, trees, mammals, wildflowers, butterflies, fish, reptiles. You may even find field guides for each of these covering just your home state. There’s one you won’t find, though: A field guide to aquatic plants.

Fortunately, even though it’s generally not sold in bookstores or any store, such a guide exists. Through the Looking Glass...A Field Guide to Aquatic Plants, by Susan Borman, Robert Korth and Jo Temte, is a fascinating book. It’s published by the Wisconsin Lakes Partnership doing business as the division of Cooperative Extension of the University of Wisconsin-Extension and the Wisconsin DNR.

I got a copy of this book as part of the admission price for an aquatic plants seminar at a Wisconsin Lakes Convention a couple of years ago. I keep it handy at our home on Birch Lake near Harshaw, Wis., and I’ve been known to refer to it after snorkeling expeditions to help identify a plant I saw.

I’ll let one of the book’s authors explain the beauty of water plants, because he does it far better than I could. Korth says in a brief foreword: “The real magic of aquatic plants can be observed by slipping through the looking glass. In this world beneath the waves, plants unequipped to withstand the force of gravity are buoyed up in a delicate splendor. This underwater forest is a place where dream and reality move side by side.

“As on land, creatures exist at all levels in these aquatic groves. Small fishes soar like birds around the plants. Larger predators lurk in their shadows. Insects, snails, bryozoans, sponges and other curious creatures live out their secret lives in the nooks and crannies of this muted forest. This is a special place moving to an ancient rhythm.”

The book is beautifully and meticulously illustrated: You’ll have no trouble identifying a plant from the detailed drawings. You can find the book on amazon.com and other online sites. If you live on a lake or just happen to love lakes, you’ll find it worthwhile to learn more about the greenery that sprouts along the shorelines, springs from the bottom, and sways with the motion of the waves.