Utricularia radiata

Little floating bladderwort

A free-floating aquatic bladderwort of ponds, lake margins, ditches and slow streams in eastern North America. At flowering it holds up a raft of inflated, spoke-like leaves that floats a short raceme of 1–7 yellow flowers above the water. The rest of the plant is a suspended mass of finely divided underwater leaves and traps that catch zooplankton. It is a smaller relative of U. inflata. Grow it in a sunny tub or aquarium of soft, acidic water with other aquatic plants.

Utricularia radiata — 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: 229. 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

Wikipedia and Go Botany record it in lakes, ponds, ditches and slow rivers. It floats among other vegetation in shallow, still, usually soft and acidic water, in open sun or light shade at the water's edge. The inflated upper leaves keep the flowers above the surface, and the bladders feed on phytoplankton and zooplankton.

Lowland coastal plain. Records carry no elevations but come from low-lying Gulf and Atlantic coastal areas.

Eastern United StatesCanada

🔒 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

Grow Utricularia radiata? Add it to a free garden and its full profile opens. Pro opens all 38,374 profiles in the library, plants and fungi.

Start free Sign in

More Utricularia

Utricularia resupinata Utricularia inflata Utricularia gibba Utricularia dichotoma Utricularia livida Utricularia aurea Utricularia caerulea Utricularia macrorhiza Utricularia pubescens Utricularia sandersonii Utricularia uliginosa Utricularia andongensis All 287 →

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.