Ceratophyllum demersum

Coontail

Habitat: Coontail and is found in the submersed plant community from the surface to depths of several meters. Lacking true roots, the plants may drift between a variety of depths during the growing season, at times becoming loosely anchored in the sediments. Unlike rooted aquatic plants, drawing their nutrients primarily from the sediments, coontail is able to draw nutrients directly from the water. Coontail is tolerant of cool temperatures and low light conditions.

Description: Coontail is a submersed aquatic plant with coarse, bushy stems and no roots. The stiff leaves are fork-divided (generally forked once or twice), flattened, and arranged in whorls of 5 to 12 leaves. The leaf margins are finely serrated. In some cases the teeth are tipped with a small spine. Whorls of leaves are more closely spaced towards the end of branches giving the plant a raccoon tail appearance. Tiny flowers, followed by spiny fruits (on female plants only) are produced in the leaf axils. Coontail fruits are smooth and have two spines at the base. (The fruits of close look-alike prickly hornwort have several spines of various lengths around the outer edge and a rough surface.)

Origin and Range: Coontail is native to New England and much of North America. Of the two Ceratophyllum species found in Maine: coontail and prickly hornwort, coontail occurs more frequently.

Annual Cycle: Because coontail is tolerant to low light and cool water, it is able to overwinter under the ice as an evergreen plant. Photosynthesis and growth slow during the winter months and resume with vigor in the spring. Male and female flowers occur on separate plants, making fertilization and seed production unreliable. Reproduction occurs mainly through plant fragmentation.

Value to the Aquatic Community: Because coontail overwinters as an evergreen plant, it provides important habitat to many invertebrates and fish year round. Waterfowl feed upon both foliage and fruit.

Look Alikes: prickly hornwort, variable leaf water-milfoil and other species of the water-milfoil genus.