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.
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 macrorhiza Leconte
NATIVE Habit: Floating aquatic. Stem: well defined, weakly branched central stolon with leaves, bladders; winter buds 1--2 cm, bristly. Leaf: 15--90 mm, 1--2-parted at base, each part unequally pinnately dissected above; ultimate segments dense, 30--150, thread-like, margin bristles 0.1--0.3 mm; bladders near base larger than those near tip. Inflorescence: 5--20-flowered; peduncle 1--4 dm, stout, 1--3 mm diam; pedicel recurved in fruit. Flower: corolla 1--2 cm; lower lip > upper; cylindric spur +- hooked upward near tip. Fruit: circumscissile. Seed: 4--6-sided, -winged. Chromosomes: 2n=+-40. Ecology: Quiet, shallow or deep, rarely flowing, acidic waters; Elevation: < 2700 m. Bioregional Distribution: NW, CaR, SN, SnFrB, SnBr, GB, w DMoj; Distribution Outside California: North America except extreme southeastern, northeastern Mexico, eastern Asia. Flowering Time: Jun--Sep Note:Utricularia vulgaris L. excluded by recircumscription. Synonyms: Utricularia vulgaris L. var. americana A. Gray; Utricularia vulgaris subsp. macrorhiza (Leconte) R.T. Clausen Unabridged Note: Plants with floating, inflated, radiating branches at peduncle base, deeply 3-lobed lower corolla lip belong to Utricularia inflata Walter, native to and of special concern in eastern United States, troublesome weed in Washington, presently known only from pond in zoo near Fresno but in future expected in wildlands in California. 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) Previous taxon: Utricularia intermedia Next taxon: Utricularia minor
Botanical illustration including Utricularia macrorhiza
Citation for this treatment: Barry A. Rice 2012, Utricularia macrorhiza, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=47607, accessed on February 07, 2025.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2025, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on February 07, 2025.
Geographic subdivisions for Utricularia macrorhiza:
NW, CaR, SN, SnFrB, SnBr, GB, w DMoj
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(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 occurrence).
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Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
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Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).