Sunday, October 30, 2011

Carnivorous Plants - Bradenton, FL

Whenever I come to visit my parents in Florida I walk along the equestrian trails in search for wildflowers. This day I was looking for carnivorous plants such as Butterworts - Pinguicula pumila, Sundew - Drosera brevifolia, and various Bladderworts - Utricularia species. There was a lot of wildflowers blooming during this visit and I was lucky to find lots of Bladderwort blooms!

Utricularia subulata - the most common bladderwort species around the neighborhood and along the trails. It is tiny! The stems are almost invisible and the flowers are smaller than pea.

Utricularia simulans - this was my first time seeing this species. It has a larger flower and has a bit more orange color in the flowers than U. subulata. It also had a fimbriate sepal which is quite pretty.

Sundew - Drosera brevifolia, this is another common species around the neighborhood. They are only about the size of a nickel. Drosera capillaris is also found here and grow around the same size. They can be distinguished by the flower stems - D. brevifolia is glandular (has the sticky droplets) and D. capillaris is smooth.

I also found a big surprise...

A Pine Lily - Lilium catesbaei!!


I found three of these lilies blooming when the trail started to become wooded with Oaks.

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