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Vascular Plants of California
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Utricularia gibba


Higher Taxonomy
Family: LentibulariaceaeView DescriptionDichotomous Key
Common Name: BLADDERWORT FAMILY
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, carnivorous, of moist or aquatic habitats. Stem: caudex or stolon, then often with thread-like branches. Leaf: simple, in rosette, or simple or dissected, emerging from caudex or stolon, with minute, carnivorous bladders +- throughout. Inflorescence: raceme or 1-flowered, scapose. Flower: bisexual; calyx lips 2[4], upper 3-lobed, lower 2-lobed, or lips unlobed; corolla 2-lipped, spurred at base, lower lip flat or arched upward, blocking throat or not; stamens 2, epipetalous; ovary superior, chamber 1, placenta generally free-central; stigma unequally 2-lobed, +- sessile. Fruit: capsule, round, 2-valved, circumscissile, or irregularly dehiscent. Seed: generally many, small.
Genera In Family: 3 genera, 330 species: worldwide, especially tropics.
eFlora Treatment Author: Barry A. Rice
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.
Genus: UtriculariaView DescriptionDichotomous Key


Common Name: BLADDERWORT
Habit: Carnivorous by bladders (here treated as modified leaves), into which small organisms are sucked when hairs at opening are triggered [epiphytic]. Stem: submersed or subterranean shoots [rarely caudex]; some aquatic species produce 2 kinds of stems, green (in water or at surface; leaves with flattened or thread-like segments; bladders 0--few) and white (generally buried in substrate; leaves 0; bladders many), the latter not always present in poor collections. Leaf: simple or generally dissected into narrow segments, alternate on stolon, margins often with bristles (visible at 10--30×). Inflorescence: raceme or 1-flowered, emergent; scape slender or wiry, bracts present. Flower: calyx lips 2[4], unlobed; corolla yellow [or not], with red-brown streaks or not, upper lip +- entire, lower entire or 3-lobed, spurred; rarely cleistogamous. Fruit: capsule.
Etymology: (Latin: little bag, from bladders) Note: Size variable, often unreliable for identification; distinction between stems, leaves uncertain. Glands inside bladders consist of 2 pairs of oppositely directed arms, angles of divergence between which used (at 150× or more) to identify fresh or pressed specimens.
Reference: Taylor 1989 Kew Bull Add Ser 14:1--724
Utricularia gibba L.
NATIVE
Habit: Loosely rooted (rarely free-floating) aquatic or creeping in mud. Stem: generally of 1 kind, thread-like, with leaves, few bladders throughout; winter buds 0. Leaf: 2--15 mm, generally 2-parted at base, each part forked again or not, bladders 0(2); ultimate segments 2--6 (8), thread-like. Inflorescence: 1--4-flowered; peduncle < 20 cm, < 0.8 mm diam; pedicel erect in fruit. Flower: corolla 6--15(25) mm, lower lip <= upper, spur +- = lower lip, conic. Fruit: laterally 2-valved. Seed: winged. Chromosomes: 2n=28.
Ecology: Shallow water, mud, mat-forming at surface of deep waters or not; Elevation: 10--2300 m. Bioregional Distribution: n&c CA-FP. Flowering Time: Jul--Sep Note: Plants in NCo, GV possibly are not native there, and may have been spread there by horticulturists or agriculture.
Synonyms: Utricularia biflora Lam.; Utricularia exoleta R. Br.; Utricularia fibrosa Walter
Jepson eFlora Author: Barry A. Rice
Reference: Taylor 1989 Kew Bull Add Ser 14:1--724
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)

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Botanical illustration including Utricularia gibba

botanical illustration including Utricularia gibba

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Citation for this treatment: Barry A. Rice 2012, Utricularia gibba, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=47599, accessed on April 23, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 23, 2024.

Utricularia gibba
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©2022 Barry Rice
Utricularia gibba
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©2022 Barry Rice
Utricularia gibba
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©2009 Barry Rice
Utricularia gibba
click for enlargement
©2022 Barry Rice
Utricularia gibba
click for enlargement
©2009 Barry Rice

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Geographic subdivisions for Utricularia gibba:
n&c CA-FP.
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map of distribution 1
(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).





 

Data provided by the participants of the  Consortium of California Herbaria.
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Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
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CCH collections by month

Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).