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Milkwort Bladderwort
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Milkwort Bladderwort
A Native Photo: C. Rajasekar
Common name: Milkwort Bladderwort
Botanical name: Utricularia polygaloides    Family: Lentibulariaceae (Bladderwort family)
Synonyms: Utricularia caerulea var. stricticaulis, Utricularia stricticaulis

Milkwort Bladderwort is a herb with rhizoids up to 3 cm long, about 0.5 mm thick at base, glandular, branches 1-3 mm long, papillose; runners up to 2 cm long, glandular, sparsely branched. Flower-racemes up to 26 cm long, about 1.5 mm thick, tapering at base, round, hairless, up to 12-flowered; scales about 1 mm long, ovate to lanceshaped, bracts up to 3 mm long, broadly ovate, pointed to tapering at tip; bracteoles 1-2 mm long. Flowers are up to 9 mm long, violet with white streaks; upper lip 4-4.5 x 2-3 mm long, oblong or obovate, blunt at tip; lower lip 5-6 x 3-4 mm, obovate, hairy in throat, raised and swollen at base, rounded or notched at tip; spur more or less equal to sepal in length, conical, pointing downwards, pointed at tip. Stamens are 1.5-2 mm long; filaments strap-shaped. Sepals are 3.3-7 x 2-4.2 mm, ovate to lanceshaped; upper sepal pointed to tapering at tip; lower sepal bi-or tritoothed or rarely tapering at tip. Foliar organs are up to 12 x 0.5 mm, linear, solitary at flowering stem base and scattered on runners, 1- nerved, pointed to blunt at tip. Traps up to 1 mm across, spherical; stalk distally thickened, glandular hairy; mouth basal; appendages 2, simple, subulate, hairy. Milkwort Bladderwort is found in India and Sri Lanka. Flowering: November-February.

Identification credit: C. Rajasekar Photographed in Narthamalai, Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu.

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