Fascinating bladderworts

Many carnivorous plants are undoubtedly just as distinctive for their leaves as for their flowers; this is particularly true of the bladderworts. Although they possess underground carnivorous traps, they are certainly not as impressive as Sarracenia or Nepenthes… but their visual appeal lies elsewhere: their flowers are real gems!

The flower is generally the only part of the plant that stands out clearly from the substrate. Yellow, pink, purple, mauve, sometimes red, it is borne on a slender stem, sometimes more than 30 cm above the foliage that carpets the substrate, bordering on its network of suction traps that colonise the ground. Most often, a flower’s diameter ranges from 0.5 to 2 cm… but fortunately, it is rarely solitary. When there aren’t several flowers on a single flower stalk, there are sometimes dozens of inflorescences rising up together. In such cases, the bladderworts are truly impressive!

A few intriguing facts:

• Some South American bladderworts develop flowers measuring up to 10 cm in diameter. They are often compared to those of orchids.
• Some species have particularly imposing and strikingly shaped foliage, such as Utricularia reniformis: a heart-shaped petiole measuring up to 30 cm, topped by a peltate (circular) leaf blade. In these species, the inflorescences grow accordingly, reaching over 60 cm!
• Within the same species, some flowers may be cleistogamous (remaining closed and self-pollinating), whilst others open normally to be pollinated by insects…