“…In general, assays can target one or a small number of target species using taxon‐specific primers and PCR, or can simultaneously characterize multiple species by generating metabarcodes. eDNA assays of aquatic vascular plants from water samples have so far been based exclusively on the former approach (Gantz, Renshaw, Erickson, Lodge, & Egan, 2018; Kuzmina, Braukmann, & Zakharov, 2018; Matsuhashi, Doi, Fujiwara, Watanabe, & Minamoto, 2016; Scriver, Marinich, Wilson, & Freeland, 2015). Although metabarcoding has been used to characterize terrestrial plant communities (Bell et al., 2016; Fahner, Shokralla, Baird, & Hajibabaei, 2016; Hawkins et al., 2015), it has not yet been applied to aquatic plant communities despite its potential as an effective approach for describing plant communities that may include alien species and species at risk.…”