May 22, 2021
Illustration of bladderwort suction traps
This is my favorite illustration when it comes to the utricules of bladderworts, since it shows not just the little bladders themselves but also the thin little filaments that stretch out from the opening of the utricules.
To quote myself from both an earlier post and my original project on carnivorous plants:
“These filaments are sensitive to movement, and when something passes by the opening (agitating the filaments) the bladder will inflate, sucking in the surrounding water and the passing organism along with it, in a motion that happens so quickly that the human eye cannot track it."