Bladderworts

Genus: Utricularia

Animals eating plants is common in a wetland, but sometimes it’s the other way around! Like the
well-known Venus Flytrap, bladderworts are a carnivorous plant that eat small aquatic creatures swimming below the surface in wetlands.

Habitat

Look for bladderworts in sunny and partly shaded areas of still and slow-moving fresh water, such as
wetlands like marshes. They can be found around the world.

You can find bladderworts at Oak Hammock Marsh!

Food

Bladderworts feeds on aquatic insects and larva, aquatic worms, and water fleas.

Behaviour

Most plants have roots, but bladderworts don’t. Rather, they have a horizontal floating stem with small
bladders that are dark to transparent in colour. The bladders are like little sacks, each with a flexible valve that lets water move continuously from inside to outside, creating an area of low pressure inside the
bladder. The valve surfaces are covered in extremely sensitive trigger hairs. When an insect brushes against these hairs, the valve suddenly opens. Water quickly flows in because of the lower pressure,
sucking the prey in too. Chemicals and bacteria digest the creature. Within 15 to 30 minutes the trap is
reset and ready again. Bladderworts send up yellow flowers above the surface of the water from June to August.

Conservation

Bladderworts are of low conservation concern. They produce many seeds each season, ensuring quick
reproduction and are very tolerant of changing water conditions.

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