Utricularia purpurea

Eastern purple bladderwort

A rootless, free-floating aquatic bladderwort of clear, soft-water lakes and ponds in eastern North America, the Caribbean and Central America. Whorls of finely divided underwater leaves carry bladders at their tips, and purple flowers are held above the water on stout stalks. Unusually for the genus it traps little prey and instead hosts a community of algae and zooplankton in its bladders. Northern plants overwinter as turions.

Utricularia purpurea — Photo: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 vols. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Vol. 3: 226. Courtesy of Kentucky Native Plant Society. Scanned by Omnitek Inc., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

At home, aim for

Day IntermediateTargets in Plantistry

Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry

Humidity Dry airBand in Plantistry

Light Full sunDLI and PPFD in Plantistry

Expects a seasonal restAquatic

Where it grows wild

Suspended just below the surface in the shallow water of lakes, ponds and quiet backwaters. These are typically soft, acidic, nutrient-poor waters, and it often grows in open water among other aquatic plants. It is rootless and never anchored in the substrate.

A lowland plant, found mostly at low elevations on the coastal plain, in glaciated lake country and on Caribbean islands.

Eastern Canada: Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime ProvincesEastern United States: New England and the Great Lakes south to Florida and the Gulf CoastCaribbean: Cuba, the Bahamas, JamaicaMexico and Central America: Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates

✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it

✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light

✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it

✓ Substrate and airflow

✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

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More Utricularia

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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its Public domain licence, unmodified.