One Plant, Three Ways

There's more than one way to look at any one plant or species and I know I'll never come to know or ID plants by looking at them in only one stage, season or from one angle. Here: simply three photographs taken last month in Queens of one species from different vantage points (far away and en masse, up close and behind, and looking down upon, respectively).

The goal for me when looking at plants is always first to try and recognize what I'm seeing, and then to figure out whether the beautiful plant I see is a good guy, a bad guy or somewhere in between. Nymphoides peltata is labeled a noxious weed in some parts of the US, including states nearby. So noxious is one way to look at it too, at least in the environment nearby. When I took these pictures, I wondered whether I was looking at a potential aquatic invasive or not, but I did not know. And I do feel that the next time I come upon this plant, I will recognize it because I took some time to look upon it closely and photograph it.