- Description
Product Description
Utricularia australis is a native, aquatic species of bladderwort found in Asia and Europe. It is a medium-sized, perennial species of aquatic bladderwort. The plant is free-floating and does not put down roots. Stems can attain lengths of over one metre in a single growing season, but die back and form turions in winter. Utricularia australis (yellow bladderwort) is a free-floating, aquatic carnivorous plant that grows submerged in ponds, ditches and slow moving nutrient poor water. It has yellow flowers.
All bladderworts have traps under the soil or in water, and are the fastest traps on the planet. Utricularia can capture prey in less than one millisecond.
Bladderworts can be found worldwide, on all continents. They stand out with their beautiful flowers, which seem to last forever. We sell easy to grow varieties, but there are native varieties: Utricularia intermedia, Utricularia minor and Utricularia vulgaris. Apart from the native bladderworts, they all need protection from the frost, and do well on windowsills.
How they feed:
Bladderworts catch prey either underneath the soil or in the water, with traps attached to their roots.
How to care for your plant:
- A position on a windowsill, heated greenhouse or conservatory, where they get a lot of light, semi-shade.
- Rainwater on a saucer (so the plants are standing in water).
- The plants will have a dormancy period.
- During the dormancy period, the main risk to the plant is rotting caused by fungal diseases. It is therefore important to reduce the watering, just keeping the plant damp, but not to let the plant dry out completely.
- Repotting: when the roots clearly show out of the bottom of the pot
- For the aquatic utricularia: submerge in rain, distilled, or reverse-osmosis water with low mineral content. The water should be clean, neutral to slightly alkaline, and unfertilized. Provide full light or partial shade. Bright, indirect sunlight or a few hours of direct sun helps it thrive. As a temperate aquatic species, it is hardy through most of the UK. In autumn, it forms dense resting buds (turions) that sink to the bottom of the pond to overwinter, rising back to the surface in spring
