Swollen Bladderwort

Description:

aka Inflated Bladderwort, or Large Floating Bladderwort Bladderworts are insectivorous/carnivorous plants with delicate, finely-divided underwater leaves and emergent snapdragon-like yellow flowers. They do not have true leaves or roots, instead they have green, highly branched, finely divided underwater leaf-like stems with small seed-like bladders. The submerged vegetation is dense and bushy. Swollen Bladderwort has a distinctive spoke-like whorl of 4 to 10 wedge-shaped floating leaves, 4 to 9 cm long (referred to as a Float), which supports the flower stalk and Yellow, snapdragon-like flowers that sit at the end of a stalk that extends about five inches above the water's surface. The "Float" with its flower develops underwater, and as the flower prepares to open, the float begins its ascent to the surface of the water. The flowers open underwater and then emerge above the waterline. The most distinctive underwater features are the small bladder-like traps. These Bladderworts capture their tiny invertebrates in one to three millimeter-long traps, or bladders (hence the name, bladder [traps] and wort [Middle English word for plant]), located under water. When prey touch the bladders, a trap door is sprung creating a vacuum that sucks the prey into the bladder. Enzymes produced by the plant then digest the prey.

Habitat:

Principally found in eastern North American clear freshwater wetlands, but can survive in muddy situations if the water dries. This photo was taken at Well's Mill Lake, in the Pine Barren's of New Jersey.

Notes:

This is one of the most fascinating plants I have come across! Video demonstrating how the traps work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb_SLZFs...