Swollen Bladderwort

(Utricularia inflata)

 

Color Photograph: NRCS Plants Database, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Swollen Bladderwort (Utricularia inflata)

Identification: Plant aquatic with flowers on a long, naked stalk above water arising from a group of swollen filamentous leaves below the water line or in mud. Underwater stems of the leaves greatly inflated with hair. Flower yellow snapdragon-like, with a lower, banner-shaped petal with a large, basal, round hump.Upper petal ovate, almost parallel to the lower petal. Leaves thin, filamentous, branched, without scattered air bladders. Stems of leaves swollen and inflated with air, the floats 2 to 3.5 inches long.

Distribution: Found along the Atlantic Coast from Delaware to Florida and along the Gulf Coast to Texas. Also known from Washington State.

Habitat: Swollen Bladderwort is found in coastal ponds.

Flowering period: May.

Swollen Bladderwort (Utricularia inflata)

Similar Species: 

The swollen, floating stems at the base of the plant are distinctive. A species not treated here (Utricularia radiata) also has swollen, floating stems, but is smaller with floats only about 1.5 inches long.

Similar Species

No Similar Species