Utricularia sandersonii - rabbit ear bladderwort

Years ago when I first started to grow carnivorous plants I heard about Utricularia, the bladderworts.  

Bladderworts are a genus of carnivorous plants that can be roughly broken into two groups, aquatic bladderworts (which live in water), and terrestrial bladderworts (which live on land).  There are also epiphytic ones, and semi aquatic ones that live in the riparian zone, some aquatic ones that are free floating, and other aquatic ones that need to be anchored to the sediment, but to keep thinks simple I try to think of two groups.

The traps of Utricularia are the most fascinating and complex of all carnivorous plants.  They are more intricate and faster moving than Venus Flytraps.  Ironically the traps are on their roots (technically stems) so you tend not to see them work or to be able to feed them easily as they are under the soil level.  You can watch the traps of the aquatic ones, and some of the larger trapped aquatic ones make a popping noise if you lift them out of water, but watching the traps of terrestrial ones is a little more difficult.  Terrestrial Utricularia also tend to have rather tiny traps, which makes them even harder to watch. 

When I first growing carnivorous plants I had a book on carnivorous plants with a description of Utricularia sandersonii accompanied by one out of focus photo.  The description said words to the effect of: "the simplest to grow and most beautiful of terrestrial Utricularia".  I had never grown any Utricularia at that time so the next time I was ordering carnivorous plants I included one of these.

Utricularia sandersonii typical flowers

My plant arrived in the post, and was a small 2cm cube of peatmoss with a few tiny green leaves.  I planted it and waited.  It didn't take too long before my little pot was brimming with flowers.  This truly was an easy to grow carnivorous plant, and it had unique little flowers that I liked.

I grew this for years, and loved it.  Now that I am growing more carnivorous plants again I looked around for anyone selling Utricularia sandersonii.  Strangely enough nowhere listed it for sale.  

I find this odd because this is incredibly simple to grow, it is not weedy, it flowers freely for most of the year, and it looks nice.

Small Utricularia sandersonii flowering

I kept looking and eventually found someone with a plant that was willing to send me a piece.  This person sent me a part that was already flowering.  Over the next few weeks it grew a few leaves and more and more flowers.

The white flowers have distinct 'rabbit ears', and my daughters say the flowers look a little like ballerinas or princess dresses.  I think this plant is lovely, and my daughters really love it.

Rabbit ear bladderwort growing near sundews

I find that Utricularia sandersonii does not like frost, nor does it like to freeze solid.  It is pretty hardy though, and tends to survive winters if given a little protection.

I grow them in either pure peatmoss, or peatmoss mixed with sand.  I grow them in a pot that is standing in a few cm of water.  I grow most of my carnivorous plants with the tray method like this, so I can either grow this in a pot with a larger species, or can grow it in a pot beside other carnivorous plants.  They like to be occasionally flooded, and seem to eat all kinds of tiny soil microbiota.

They seem to flower for most of the year, only having a break when it is really hot or really cold.  Most years they will flower continuously as long as they don't get too crowded.

As long as water is covering the drainage holes they seem to thrive.  I have also seen these grow happily in a mug or tea cup with no drainage holes.  They can look really pretty growing in the right mug.

I tend to give them dappled shade, but am told that they can withstand full sun.  I hope to divide my plant in spring and grow some in different locations to see what they can tolerate.  These are simple to divide, just pull off a little part, plant it, and it will grow.  I find they do best if they have roots, but if they do not have roots they still grow, it just takes them a little longer to get started.

These tend to spread underground and pop up new leaves here and there over their pot, as well as popping out of the drainage hole.  Once they fill a pot they don't flower too well, and it is time to divide the plant.  Simple.

Bladderwort still flowering

Dividing these is simple, either carefully dig out a part, or just tear a piece off, and plant it.  If you put a few small pieces in a pot they seem to grow larger pretty fast.  I don't know the best way to do this, but I just use tweezers.  Give them lots of water and they are good to go.

From what I have seen, this species does not set seed.  Or at least it does not set seed under my conditions.  Perhaps it needs certain temperature, or lighting, a certain pollinator, or even two clones to produce viable seed.  

It grows so simply that a lack of seed is not an issue.  Not producing seed may even be a good thing, as it prevents this species from being a weed throughout my carnivorous plant collection.

The leaves of this plant are small, green, and unimpressive.  Unless they are flowering they are really not much to look at.  Luckily they flower for most months of the year.

My plant is still small, but it is pumping out flowers.  Seeing a more mature clump in full bloom is really impressive.  I can hardly wait for my plant to fill out a bit more.

Utricularia sandersonii and sundews

To the best of my knowledge there are two clones in Australia.  The typical one which I have, and a 'blue' flowered clone.  

The 'blue' one looks much the same as the typical one, except the ears are shorter and the flower is wider.  The photos I have seen don't look all that blue.  I am told that the blue clone can be reluctant to flower under less than ideal conditions.  I have never grown it, or seen it in real life, so can't really comment.

My typical clone flowers like mad, and does not stop just because the conditions are less than ideal, so I am more than happy with it.  It slows down flowering over winter, but that is ok.  I am really glad that I was able to track down this species again.

My plant is still flowering in winter, and is slowly growing and filling out its pot.  In spring if I have any extra plant I will offer them through my for sale page.  They handle postage really well 'bare rooted' (with minimal peatmoss).  I may also be keen to swap for other carnivorous plants if you have anything that I am after.