|
|
| Photos
by Renee Brecht |
Britton and Brown. See
credits below.** |
| Botanical name: |
Utricularia purpurea Walter |
| Common
name: |
purple bladderwort |
| Synonomy: |
Vesiculina purpurea (Walter) Raf |
| Group: |
dicot |
| Family: |
Lentibulariaceae |
| Growth
Type: |
forb/herb |
| Duration: |
annual
perennial |
| Origin: |
native |
| Plant
height: |
most of plant is submersed, up to 3'; up to 2-6" above water |
| Foliage: |
leaves are submersed, and are in whorls of 507
Tiny
bladders originally thought to float the plant actually trap and digest
very small invertebrates, opening when trigger hairs are disturbed and
suddenly sucking in water and any invertebrates (i.e., they are
carnivorous). Digestion takes approxiamately 15 minutes to 2 hours. The
"bug soup" is then extracted into the stem, clearing out the bladder's
vaccuum and resetting the trigger hairs.
Mary Treat of Vineland, an early female scientist, did much research on Utricularia and
was one of the first scientists to suspect that the bladders were
actually traps for tiny creatures rather than air flotation devices. |
| Flower
color: |
pink to lavendar |
| Flower
size: |
3/8" |
| Flowering/fruiting time |
mid July to September |
| Habitat: |
aquatic plant of quiet shallow waters |
| Range
in
New Jersey: |
local through the Pine Barrens and outliers |
| Heritage ranking if any: |
S3, LP, HL |
| Distribution: |
 |
| Misc.: |
|
|
|
Not sure what a word means? Use Answers.com:
|
|
Sources
**USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. Vol. 3: 226. |
|
