U. vulgaris

[Rob-Rah]

Does anyone have any tips on how to grow this species in a tank, rather than a pond? I would like to have some of it in my frost-free greenhouse with my other CPs in some sort of tank, so I can see it properly. I have read all sorts of things about the depth of the water required, anywhere from 1 to 3 (or more) feet. If it's enclosed like this, will it form happy mats of stolons, or does it just complain? I was considering a tank around 14 inches deep (maybe 60-70 litres / 13-15 gallons). Is this way too small? How you grow yours?

Cheers.

[JohnnyBlaze]

I have grown this species for months at a time in a partially shaded bowl filled with tap water. It always seems happy for a while, then gets slowly taken over by algae, in spite of me cleaning the tanks...

[Richard]

I grew this plant in a tank a few years back, with no problems at all. The tank was clear plastic, about 2.5' x 1.5' x 2' deep. This was kept outside the front of my greenhouse in partial shade. I placed a layer of peat in the bottom and covered this with a layer of sand. Rain water was slowly added using a fine rose so as not to disturb the peat and when the water had cleared I added the plant.

After a week, the water started to go green and the plant was beginning to look really sorry for itself. To help condition the water, I took a look around my local aquatic centre and bought some kind of aquatic grass. I just stood the pot it came in on an upturned clay pot in the corner of the tank. This seemed to do the trick and slowly the water started to clear. The bladderwort seemed to do really well with the grass in the tank. It started to row at a tremendous rate. In the space of three months it has wound itself around the inside of the tank 4 times! The plant was very large with bladers almost 1cm in diameter. These started off translucent green and later turned purple. If you lifted the plant out of the water, all the bladders would go off making a loud popping sound!

I actually had quite a lot of wildlife living in the tank before the end of the year. Snails, worms and a couple of newts decided to take up home in the upturned, broken clay pot.

Winter was the only trouble I had. My plants had grown well and had produced turions about the size of wallnuts. One day I came out to find my tank had frozen and the sides had split. The turions had dried out and they never recovered, otherwise I am 100% sure that they would have been happy to live in the tank permanently.

[Rob-Rah]

Thanks for that. It's very helpful indeed!

I don't intend to subject the plant to freezing, so I won't have the same unlucky problem as you. It should still go dormant at 4C.

Hope this works!

Thanks.

[gardenofeden]

if it really is vulgaris they normally grow in alkaline fens so prefer base rich water. I suspect it may be australis, almost identical and more common, which will grow well in peaty, acid water.

[Richard]

My plant was obtained from Dick jones so it is whatever plant he has!!

[Rob-Rah]

I thought that there were two species, U vulgaris and U macrorhiza, which are very similar and both grow in acidic water. The difference I was led to believe was that U macrorhiza's bladders darkened to almost black with age, whereas U. vulgaris's didn't. I'm not sure what I have. I was growing some in a pond, but these new plants I want to use in a tank came from the auction late last year, so I havent seen the bladders yet.

[dennisB]

Rob

you have vulgaris.

Dennis

[Guest spongi]

Can't beliebe it is U. vulgaris. The bladders get 1 to 4 mm in size, at least mid European ones. Am I wrong :? and is there a giant vulgaris ;) ?

U. vulgaris and australis often grow in the same water.

As for other plants, the pH-value (acidity) is just an indication and just shows the content of free H-iones in the substrate. Many plants grow in much more or less acid substrate than expected. Much more important is the content of nutrients in the soil/water.

I know a gardener who grows Utricularia in pots (barrells) of rain water. You can add some water of a biotop to import the small animals (daphniae etc.). To prevent the grow of algae, add water snails, but not (at least not too many) lymnaea stagnalis. They like my utris too much. Better are Planorbarius corneus, Planorbis planorbis or Stagnicola palustris etc.

The following code tells about the "optimal" conditions (with a wide variability and interdependence between the single conditions.

The scale goes from 1 to 5.

1 means very few, 5 means very much.

1 st number _ showing the acidity

2 nd number_ content of nutrients

3 rd number_ light

4 th number_ average temperature

5 th number_ differences of daily and annual temperatures

U. vulgaris has: 33442

U. australis: 33432

So: pH between 5 and 7,5, medium nutrient, quite lot of light, australis can grow in cooler climate than vulgaris, but both are sensitive to early frosts in autumn. Cold temperatures in winter do not harm the turions.

In one of my pots outside i grow them together with Aldrovanda and other Utricularia, and they do all well together, even the requirements are slightly different.

Aldrovanda has: 32352, U. ochroleuca and intermedia 22442

My tanks have a lenth of around 60 cm, wide 40cm, 40 cm deep.

[Giles_KS]

U. vulgaris, macrorhiza and australis are all very similar. U. macrorhiza grows from America west to eastern Asia, whereas U. vulgaris grows from Europe east into Asia. I'm not so sure about the distribution of U. australis, but I think it is more widespread and also grows in the southern hemisphere, eg. Australia. It is impossible to separate U. vulgaris & australis without flowers/fruits. U. australis is sterile & does not fruit.

I have seen U. australis flowering in a fen-type habitat in Ireland - very shallow water virtually all covered by tall sedges (Carex spp.). Underneath the sedges were small, non-flowering Utricularia (prob australis), growing with the floating liverwort Ricciocarpus natans. There was one open area where the Utricularia was flowering - very shallow water over a hard substrate & matted with blanketweed algae. I'm not sure what the pH would have been, but it probably wasn't all that acidic.