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 minor L.
NATIVE Habit: Rooted or floating aquatic. Stem: slender, weakly to strongly of 2 kinds, some with many leaves, some bladders, others with 0--few leaves, +- many bladders; winter buds glabrous. Leaf: 2--15 mm, 3-parted at base, variously dissected above; ultimate segments 7--22, +- thread-like to flattened, margin bristles 0 or microscopic. Inflorescence: 2--6-flowered; peduncle 3--25 cm, wiry, 0.4--0.8 mm diam; pedicel recurved in fruit. Flower: corolla 6--8 mm; lower lip > 2 × upper, 2 × sac-like spur. Fruit: circumscissile. Seed: 4--6-sided, +- unwinged. Chromosomes: 2n=+-40. Ecology: Shallow (generally < 30 cm) acidic waters; Elevation: 800--2900 m. Bioregional Distribution: CaRH, SNH, MP; Distribution Outside California: Alaska, northern United States, Canada; circumboreal. Flowering Time: Jun--Sep 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) Listed on CNPS Rare Plant Inventory Previous taxon: Utricularia macrorhiza Next taxon: Utricularia ochroleuca
Botanical illustration including Utricularia minor
Citation for this treatment: Barry A. Rice 2012, Utricularia minor, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=47609, accessed on January 22, 2025.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2025, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on January 22, 2025.
MAP CONTROLS 1. You can change the display of the base map layer control box in the upper right-hand corner.
2. County and Jepson Region polygons can be turned off and on using the check boxes.
(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).
MAP LEGEND View all CCH records All markers link to CCH specimen records. The original determination is shown in the popup window.
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.
Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues.
READ ABOUT YELLOW FLAGS
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).
