Long-stalked Pondweed
Potamogeton praelongus
Most people admire the beauty of tropical lakes, but hardly anybody knows that also many cold lakes in the Arctic host a rich vegetation forming an attractive underwater landscape. Endless water meadows made of rich population of Potamogeton preaelongus in lake Ferguson in Greenland may serve as an example.
The critically endangered Long-stalked pondweed (Potamogeton praelongus) was in the past a rare species of our flora. It occurred in running and standing clean cold waters in the surroundings of Písek, Česká Lípa, Chlumec nad Cidlinou, Prague and lower Poorličí. It is on the southern border of its world range in Bohemia. Direct devastation of habitats, water pollution and raising of herbivorous fish were the main reasons for rapid decrease of this species in the second half of the 20th century. There is currently only one last site in the Czech Republic in a cutoff in Malšova Lhota near Hradec Králové, but even here is the population near extinction.
The species is very rare and critically endangered in other European countries as well (Germany, Poland, Baltic countries, Denmark, France). It is therefore needed to consider the importance of the Action Plan for Potamogeton praelongus in the context of its Central European occurrence.
The Action Plan for Potamogeton praelongus in the Czech Republic was approved by the Ministry of the Environment in May 2003.