Utricularia Central

[tropicbreeze]

Rains have stopped here and with water levels dropping it's a good time for Utrics. Went with a group to check out what was around. The photos are not the best, but I was pleased with what was found.

Utricularia kamienskii. Not a lot of them around and they were smaller flowers/plants than what I have seen previously elsewhere.





Utricularia leptoplectra, quite numerous, staying mainly on higher wet ground out of the water.





Utricularia odorata, another quite common one, also on the higher ground.





Utricularia dunstaniae. I was particularly pleased with finding this one. They're so difficult to see, like searching for a particular fibre in a carpet. Most plants were from about 30 to 40 mm overall height. Being hair-like they were also difficult to photograph.







Utricularia holtzei, another very small one but with a larger flower. The second photo gives an idea of size compared to a Drosera. Always standing in water.







Utricularia hamiltonii, again a small plant but larger than holtzei. The third photo compares to Drosera and U. holtzei.







Utricularia capilliflora is another of the hair-like Utrics. Difficult to find and difficult to photograph.





This last one I think is Utricularia dunlopii, but not sure. They are found in that area, and I did see some there. But I deleted lots of photos that were very poor and maybe all the dunlopii went with them. If not dunlopii then perhaps a capilliflora (with a holtzei in the corner).

[Vince81]

Nice hunt, that is an amazing selection of very uncommon Utricularia.

 

Many thanks for sharing !

[Mujinamo]

It is amazing that you are able to see these rare Utricularia in the wild. Thank you so much for sharing your pictures with us!

[tropicbreeze]

Thanks for the comments. I'm planning on going back around near the same area next week. Hopefully more species, and better photos.

[Dieter]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing pictures of these rarely seen species.

 

I once tried to take nice picture of - I think - U. dunlopii flowers and completely failed to come up with anything I was somewhat happy with. These species really are difficult to capture well!

 

Best regards

Dieter

[Daniel O.]

Wow, really not often seen species.

Many thanks for sharing these pictures.

 

Best regards,

Daniel

[RL7836]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing pictures of these rarely seen species.

Yes - many thanks for sharing! It's good to know that some of these are still around & have not been wiped out.

[tropicbreeze]

I should probably mention, as far as protection of the area goes there could be problems. Real estate developers want to drain the area for subdivision. Sand miners want to dig up the sand that all these grow on. And people (especially young people) like to go into the area on trail bikes and quad bikes and race through the swamps. The Environmental Protection Agency has done a report on the area and put up recommendations for protecting it. The full draft report is up on the internet:

http://www.ntepa.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/357269/howards_springs_sand_plains_env_quality_report.pdf

It's there for public comment but closes 25 May 2015. Because it's so close to Darwin a lot of money could be made developing it. So the pressure is on government to ignore the environmental issues.