LENTIBULARIACEJE BLADDERWORT FAMILY 



Utricularia subulata, L 



Yellow Bladderwort, 



Tiny Bladderwort, 

 June-August Zigzag Bladderwort. 



Utricularia: Latin for a little bladder. 

 Subulata: Latin to signify "borne underground." 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: sandy swamps. 



THE PLANT: aquatic and immersed, with thread-like, dis- 

 sected leaves, borne underground on little bladders to float 

 it; sometimes both leaves and bladders are missing; the 

 flower stem thread-like and hairless, stiff. 



THE FLOWERS: borne in zigzag raceme; the corolla one 

 half inch long or less, deeply two-lipped; the lower lip 

 larger, three-lobed and with a prominent palate, which is 

 usually bearded; the calyx two-lipped. 



THE FRUIT: a capsule. 



This beautiful little flower has been mistaken for the 

 famous "Yellow Orchid" (Habenaria ciliaris), but those 

 hunting for the Yellow Orchid are wrong if they stop their 

 search here. These irregularly shaped flowers do certainly 

 suggest the characteristics of an orchid. For they have two 

 lips, the lower with three lobes, much larger than the upper, 

 and a spur that lies almost flat on the lower lip, which it 

 nearly equals in length. But these flowers cannot be 

 orchids, because among other more technical reasons, in 

 an orchid both the calyx and the corolla must be attached 

 to the ovary. In this flower the calyx is free. 



As the range is given in Gray's Botany (7th edition), 

 Nantucket is the northern limit. 



Four other members of the Bladderwort Family have 

 been reported. 



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