Chara (Muskgrass) in Wisconsin
As of September 2026: Chara is a native algae in Wisconsin, treated as native vegetation under Wis. Admin. Code NR 109. This page summarizes current DNR guidance.
Chara, often called muskgrass, isn't a plant at all, it's a large algae, but it looks and behaves enough like a rooted weed that most homeowners never think to check. It grows low and bushy along the bottom, and it's usually the plant behind a musty, garlic-like smell when someone pulls a handful up to look at it.
How to identify it
- Gritty texture. Chara accumulates calcium carbonate on its surface, so it feels rough or gritty between your fingers, unlike a smooth-leaved plant.
- Musty or garlic-like smell. A crushed strand has a distinctive odor that's often the fastest way to confirm what you're holding.
- Low, dense growth. Chara typically forms carpets on the lake bottom in clear, hard-water lakes rather than reaching toward the surface like milfoil or pondweed.
- Gray-green color. Usually a duller, grayer green than most rooted native plants.
Don't confuse it with the invasive algae starry stonewort, which grows in a similar whorled, gritty form but produces a distinct star-shaped bulbil at the base of its branches. See the starry stonewort identification guide before assuming a gritty, musty strand is ordinary chara.
Why it's usually left alone
Chara plays a genuinely useful role in a lake. It stabilizes bottom sediment, competes with nuisance algae for nutrients, and provides habitat for small invertebrates that fish feed on. A lake with a healthy chara bed often has clearer water than one without it, which is part of why the DNR treats it as native vegetation rather than a nuisance to be cleared by default.
Removal rules
As a native aquatic plant, chara falls under the same NR 109 rules as coontail or native watermilfoil. Hand-pulling, string trimming, or a push mower on exposed lakebed inside a 30-foot corridor centered on your pier, lift, and swim area needs no permit under NR 109.06(2)(a)1. Removal beyond that corridor, or with mechanical equipment, needs a permit.
Because chara often carpets a large area rather than growing in a small patch, homeowners who find it uncomfortable underfoot near a swim area sometimes want more than the 30-foot exemption covers. That's a permit conversation with the DNR, not a workaround.
Related plants
See coontail, another native plant commonly confused with something invasive, and why the DNR treats native and invasive plants differently for the broader rule behind all of this.