Species

Utricularia livida

Etymology

Utricularia: a small bladder

Common Name(s)

bladderwort

Authority

Utricularia livida E. Mey

Family

Lentibulariaceae

Brief Description

Minute herb with wedge-shaped leaves up to 7 mm long growing from underground parts, flower stalks much larger, usually around 10 cm long, with 2 to 8 oblong violet or white flowers up to 1.5 cm long.

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

NVS Species Code

UTRLIV

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Herbs other than Composites

Distribution

Only known from two sites in Waitakere District, Auckland.

Habitat

Dune slack wetlands amongst oioi (Apodasmia similis).

Features

Annual or perennial, terrestrial. Rhizoids few to many, capillary, simple. Stolons up to 5.0 cm long, few, apillary, much branched. Leaves few, usually one at peduncle base, others scattered on stolons; lamina 0.2-7.0 × 1.0-6.0 mm, narrowly cuneate or obovate to reniform, petiolate. Traps numerous on rhizoids, stolons, and leaves, 1-2 mm long, ovoid, stalked. Inflorescences 2-80 cm long, erect, solitary, simple or branched above; peduncle 0.5-2.0 mm diam., terete, glabrous. Bracts c. 1 mm long, basifixed, ovate to ovate-deltoid. Flowers 2-8, distant to congested; pedicels 1-3 mm long, terete, erect in flower, spreading or reflexed in fruit; calyx 2-5 mm long; corolla 5-15 mm long, violet, lower floral limb transversely wrinkled; filaments c. 1 mm long; ovary globose; style cylindrical, short. Capsule c. 2 mm long, globose, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Apparently seed is not produced in naturalised populations.

Similar Taxa

Other so-called 'terrestrial' Utricularia species have similar leaves, although the native U. dichotoma and U. delicatula do not have wedge-shaped leaves. Two other introduced species U. sandersonii and U. arenaria have a spur that extends well beyond the lower lip of the flower.

Flowering

Summer

Flower Colours

Violet / Purple,White

Fruiting

n/a

Year Naturalised

2001

Origin

Tropical and southern Africa, Madagascar and Mexico.

Reason for Introduction

Ornamental plant

Control Techniques

Manual removal.

Life Cycle and Dispersal

Deliberate planting and water borne dispersal of rhizome fragments

Attribution

Factsheet prepared by Paul Champion and Deborah Hofstra (NIWA).

References and further reading

Heenan, P.B.; de Lange, P.J.; Cameron, E.K.; Ogle, C.C.; Champion, P.D. (2004). Checklist of dicotyledons, gymnosperms and pteridophytes naturalised or casual in New Zealand: additional records 2001-2003. New Zealand Journal of Botany 42: 797-814.

 

This page last updated on 21 Aug 2013