The beautiful looking flowers of the Utricularia (or bladderworts) almost hides what happens below the surface. The roots of these plants contain bladder-like traps which can suck in tiny bugs to feed themselves. The bladderworts you see here are some I would like to own myself one day: U. bisquamata, U. sandersonii, U. longifolia, U. subulata, U. fulva and U. reniformis.

Good news! The first three are easy to keep, and I”m pretty sure they all are, I just can’t vouch for the rest. They can’t tolerate minerals, though, being carnivorous plants. To keep them happy, pot them in rinsed sphagnum moss (for the larger ones) or rinsed sphagnum peat (for the smallers) with a big handful of perlite mixed in. Not Miracle-Gro brand, it all has fertilizers which are toxic to carnivorous plants.

Keep them very wet with rainwater, distilled water, or RO water, and occasionally put in a big pinch of dry leaves or similar to fuel the growth of microorganisms for them to eat.

At least one of those is probably aquatic, in which case it should be kept in diluted pondwater in at least a gallon-size container. They need moderate to bright light, and should be kept wet at all times, soggier than you’d keep just about any other plant. Seriously, my U. Sandersonii likes to be watered so much the surface is submerged about once a month. U. Longifolia prefers a fluffier substrate with larger components like sphagnum moss, and likes slots in the sides of its container like it’s an orchid, but likes to be kept very wet as well. U. Bisquamata is a weed in carnivorous plant collections, pretty much any combo of “very wet, no minerals or fertilizers, good light” should grow it.

The best part, IMO? Aside from U. Longifolia (too big) and the aquatic ones, bladderworts can happily be grown in teacups. They don’t need any drainage at all, in fact I don’t put mine in actual pots because it’s easier to keep them wet that way. They look adorable in teacups, tiny little leaves and itty-bitty orchid-like flowers. You’d never know about all the bug murder under the surface.

inkskinned:

where is my bog real estate agent to select the correct peat for me to decompose in

If you just want a little bit of flashy, try a peat bog that has carnivorous plants in it. Sarracenia pitchers are native to much of the U.S, and in the Carolinas you can find Venus flytraps, plus sundews in a lot of other areas. Orchids are popular bog decor as well.

Those neat plants are generally found in sphagnum peat, made from sphagnum moss, rather than peat made from decayed reeds and shrub-like plants. Truthfully, the differences in chemical composition of peats are minimal. I prefer sphagnum peat for the carnivorous plants, but there are interesting things in sedge peat as well. Regardless of what some people will try to tell you, you should pick your bog mostly based on your personal aesthetics rather than exact specifications of the peat- it’s the acidity and lack of oxygen that are important. I personally love the imagery of Venus flytraps and their pseudo-fangs, but you may prefer the drowning pools of the Sarracenia pitchers or the relentless glue of the sundews. Or perhaps you prefer the straightforward but strange beauty of the orchids?

Regardless of aesthetic, if you purchase an area of bog to bury yourself in, the rare plants living in it will be safe from industrial development!

Be sure to request that your burying assistants be careful with the top layer of bog and place it all back as it was, the plants should cope just fine with the disturbance. You needn’t worry about your chemical or nutrient content, either, the lack of decomposition means most of that will stay contained and won’t affect the plant life around you.

just saw ur nepenthes post n Do U Know about the N. bicalcarata and C. schmitzi ant mutualism?????? it s.. so hardcore

botanyshitposts:

BICALS ARE SO HARDCORE AND I LOVE THEM AND THEIR ANT FRIENDS

a quick lesson on bicals, the carnivorous nepenthes that every nepenthes grower and their mom wants to grow at some point in their lives:

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~~(okay so this explanation is gonna have a lot of pics so im gonna put it under a cut even though i super dont want to because this is so cool like im gonna die)~~ EDIT: i’ve been told that the read more sucks so im removing it

yes, those are fangs. they don’t function like actual fangs- keep in mind that nepenthes pitchers are inert, and don’t close or move like sundews or venus fly traps do. in this case, the fangs profusely secrete nectar (other functional uses of them are debated, but include warding off monkeys that might try to drink from them and creating loose footing for insects):

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this is pretty much the main appeal of bicals to growers and hobbyists, but scientifically, they’re an amazing case of mutualism! the pictures we’ve seen so far are what we call the lower pitchers of the plant. nepenthes have upper and lower pitchers that grow on those respective portions of the vine; these pitchers sometimes have physiological differences. what we’re gonna focus on here is the upper pitchers, which look like this:

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the main difference here is that weird loop. what’s going on there?

well,

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its a built-in house for a very specific species of carpenter ants, Camponotus schmitzi, which live almost exclusively in wild bicals and are heavily dependent on them in their native habitat of Borneo.

both of these species are so specifically evolved to each other that its ridiculous. the ants:

-get to eat all the nectar they want because they’re specially evolved to be able to crawl all over it

-get to eat flies, mites, fungus, other ants, other insects, and anything else that might fall into the pitcher, or just attack them so they can’t escape.

-can walk on and be submerged in the fluid inside the pitcher without getting eaten alive by acid because they’re evolved to

-get a free house with every upper pitcher the plant makes. the plant doesnt have special lower pitchers for them because they sometimes get flooded when it rains (closer to the ground) and the plant doesnt want to hurt its ant friends

-basically sit right under the lip of the pitcher and wait to ambush things that fall in

-the ants have this behavior where they drag big prey they want up from the fluid up the pitcher to eat it under the pitcher lip. this is just how they eat. what do u expect like they’re not gonna eat right in the pitcher fluid like animals even if dragging food up two inches can take them up to twelve hours at a time depending on the size like were u raised in a barn?????????

the plant:

-gets free protection from mites and fungus and stuff

-doesnt need many digestive fluids of its own because the ants just eat whatever falls in and then poop it into the pitcher, which is way easier to digest

-gets its pitchers kept clean and the fluid free from clutter that might cause rot

-sometimes gets to eat dead ants that happen to fall into the pitcher

-research also tells us that the ants tend to prefer attacking large prey and stuff that tries harder to escape, increasing the amount the plant gets to eat.

in general, bicals can survive without the ants and do fine in captivity, but the ants cannot survive without the plants- they nest in their upper pitchers exclusively and get a ton, if not all, of their food from them. in general, this relationship is suuuuuper complex and is actually still being studied!

some more sweet plant and ant friend pics from this research paper on their friendship:

here’s a video showing the ants going about some of their daily business!