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Malabar Bladderwort
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Malabar Bladderwort
ative Photo: Prashant Awale
Common name: Malabar Bladderwort
Botanical name: Utricularia malabarica    Family: Lentibulariaceae (Bladderwort family)

Malabar Bladderwort is an annual carnivorous herb. Rhizoids are usually absent, if present up to 1 cm long. Stolons are up to 2 cm long, about 0.2 mm thick, profusely branched. Foliar organs up to 4 x 1.5 mm, obovate to oblanceolate, 3-nerved, rounded at apex. Traps up to 1.5 mm across, globose; stalk glandular; mouth basal; appendages 2, subulate, simple, glandular. Flower racemes are 2-6.5 cm long, about 0.6 mm thick; erect, glabrous, angular, grooved on one side, 1-4 flowered. Scales are about 1.1 x 0.9 mm, basifixed, ovate-traingular, pointed to long-pointed, bracts about 1.5 x 0.9 mm, obovate to deltoid, acuminate at apex; bracteoles shorter than bracts, subulate; pedicels 3-4 mm long, winged, erect in anthesis, recurved in fruit. Sepals are about 2 x 2 mm, ovate, papillose without; upper lobe acuminate at apex; lower bidentate at apex. Flowers are blue with white tinge, upper lip about 2.5 x 1.5 mm, oblong, truncate or notched at tip, lower about 4 x 5 mm, nearly circular, hairy in throat, bigibbous at base, emarginated at apex; spur 4.5 mm long, slender, acute at apex. Stamens 1 mm long; filaments strap-shaped; anther thecae distinct. Ovary ovoid; style short; stigma 2-lipped, lower lip oblong and hairy, upper lip short and semiorbicular. Capsules are 2.8 x 1.8 mm, ovoid to subglobose, uniformly membranous. Malabar Bladderwort is found in Western Ghats.

Identification credit: Shrikant Ingalhalikar
Photographed in Konkan, Goa.
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