Description:
<jats:sec><jats:title>Premise of the Study</jats:title><jats:p>To enhance the understanding of the recent invasion process of the clonal waterweed <jats:italic>Elodea nuttallii</jats:italic> (Hydrocharitaceae), analyses of population structure and genotypic diversity need to be undertaken, for which genetic markers are needed.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods and Results</jats:title><jats:p>High‐throughput sequencing of <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">DNA</jats:styled-content> enriched for microsatellites was used to develop 24 loci that were characterized in <jats:italic>E. nuttallii</jats:italic>, 21 of which were polymorphic, with the number of alleles ranging from two to 10. In two populations, expected heterozygosity ranged among loci between zero and 0.796. In the congener <jats:italic>E. canadensis</jats:italic>, all markers yielded <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">PCR</jats:styled-content> products, 19 of which were polymorphic, with two to nine alleles and expected heterozygosity ranging from zero to 0.690 in two populations.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>The markers described should be useful for future studies of population structure and clonal diversity of <jats:italic>E. nuttallii</jats:italic> as well as <jats:italic>E. canadensis</jats:italic> in their native and invasive range.</jats:p></jats:sec>