Utricularia foliosa L.

Large, robust, suspended, perhaps perennial aquatic. Rhizoids absent. Stolons robust, up to several m long, flattened in cross-section and 1-4 mm wide, glabrous and mucilaginous, the internodes 2-15 cm long. Capillary air shoots up to 20 cm long, c. 0.5 mm thick, bearing at the apex a few minute ovate scales, often arise from the nodes or internodes. Leaves alternate on the stolon branches, multiple pinnate, ovate in outline, up to 45 cm long, usually dimorphic, some with fewer segments and numerous traps, other with more numerous segments and few or no traps, the rhachis sometimes inflated, the ultimate segments of both types capillary, laterally and apically minutely setulose. Traps lateral near the base of the penultimate leaf-segments, obliquely broadly ovoid or globose, 1-2 mm long, shortly stalked, the mouth lateral with 2, usually unequal, sparsely branched setiform appendages, or naked, the internal glands 2-and 4-armed, the arms very narrowly cylindrical, with apex acute, up to 120 µ long and up to 30 times as long as wide, the quadrifids with the longer pair parallel and the shorter pair varying from very widely divergent to ± completely reflexed, with an included angle of from c. 160° to 350°. Inflorescence erect, emergent, simple, 7-45 cm long, arising from the stolon nodes; peduncle straight, terete, relatively stout, up to 5 mm in diameter, glabrous. Scales absent, or often 1 or 2 just below the lowermost flower. Bracts basifixed, broadly ovate with apex truncate to shortly acuminate, 2-4 mm long, many-nerved. Bracteoles absent. Flowers 3-20, the raceme axis short at initial anthesis but elongating with age; pedicels filiform, dorsiventrally compressed, glandular, 0.4-0.6 cm long, short and erect at anthesis, elongate and decurved in fruit. Calyx lobes subequal, broadly ovate, 3-5 mm long, somewhat fleshy, glandular, scarcely accrescent, connate at the base, the apex of the upper lobe obtuse, and of the lower lobe bi-or tridentate. Corolla yellow, sometimes with purple nerves, 0.8-1.5 cm long; upper lip circular or transversely elliptic, with apex rounded; lower lip limb larger, transversely elliptic to subreniform, the base with a prominent rounded swelling, the apex rounded or retuse; palate margin sparsely papillose; spur narrowly conical with apex obtuse, often emarginate, straight, as long as or somewhat shorter than the lower lip and ± parallel with it; the inner surface on the dorsal side with numerous minute, shortly stalked glands usually disposed in 2 oblong patches, one on either side of the central nerve. Filaments curved, the anther thecae confluent. Ovary globose, ovules usually few; style short but distinct; stigma lower lip circular, often hispid and ciliate, the upper lip much smaller, semicircular or deltoid with apex acute, obtuse, emarginate or bidentate. Capsule globose, up to 8 mm in diameter, the wall rather thick and fleshy, sparsely covered with depressed-globose, sessile glands, apparently indehiscent. Seeds 4-12, thinly lenticular with a narrow, regular wing, 2-2.5 mm in total diameter, almost circular to quite distinctly c. 5 angled, the testa cells indistinct, elongate, the anticlinal boundaries sunken, markedly sinuate, the periclinal walls slightly convex, smooth, collapsing and becoming irregularly rugose on drying. Flowering more or less throughout the year.