Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains

46. Lentibulariaceae, the Bladderwort Family

1. Utricularia L. -- Bladderwort

3. Utricularia vulgaris L. -- Common bladderwort

Stems free-floating, often extensive. Leaves numerous, mostly dichotomous at the base and then repeatedly and unequally dichotomous, 1-5 cm long, the segments more or less terete, progressively reduced with branching, the ultimate segments filiform, attenuate; bladders borne on segments of ordinary leaves, 1-4 mm wide; winter buds ovoid or ellipsoid, 1-2 cm long. Flowers usually 6-20 in a lax raceme borne on a stout peduncle 6-25 cm long; corolla with a lower lip mostly 10-20 mm long, sometimes much smaller on later flowers, the palate well-developed, the upper lip about equaling the lower one; spur ca. 2/3 as long as the lower lip; fruiting pedicels recurved. Jun--Aug. Shallow, standing water of lakes, ponds, marshes and ditches, often among rushes or cattails; common in all but the w part; (Circumboreal, in N.Amer. s to FL, TX, AZ and CA).

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