''Utricularia humboldtii'' is a large

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...

carnivorous plant that belongs to the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

Utricularia ''Utricularia'', commonly and collectively called the bladderworts, is a genus of carnivorous plants consisting of approximately 233 species (precise counts differ based on classification opinions; a 2001 publication lists 215 species).Salmon, Br ...

''.

Peter Taylor Peter Taylor may refer to: Arts * Peter Taylor (writer) (1917–1994), American author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction * Peter Taylor (film editor) (1922–1997), English film editor, winner of an Academy Award for Film Editing Politi ...

lists it as either an "aquatic-epiphyte", a subaquatic or a terrestrial species. ''U. humboldtii'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

, where it is found in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, Guyana, and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. It was originally published and described by

Robert Hermann Schomburgk Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk (5 June 1804 – 11 March 1865) was a German-born explorer for Great Britain who carried out geographical, ethnological and botanical studies in South America and the West Indies, and also fulfilled diplomatic missi ...

in 1840. It is usually found growing in the water-filled leaf axils of some species of bromeliad, including ''

Brocchinia micrantha ''Brocchinia micrantha'' is a species of plant in the genus ''Brocchinia''. This species is native to Venezuela and Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South Ameri ...

'', '' B. tatei'', and '' B. reducta'' and also plants in the genus '' Orectanthe''. It also grows as an epiphyte on tree trunks or as a subaquatic or terrestrial species in shallow water or wet soil in open savanna. It is found mostly between altitudes of and , though it has been found at altitudes as low as . It has been collected in flower throughout every month of the year.Taylor, Peter. (1989). ''

The genus Utricularia - a taxonomic monograph ''The Genus Utricularia: A Taxonomic Monograph'' is a monograph by Peter Taylor on the carnivorous plant genus ''Utricularia'', the bladderworts. It was published in 1989 by Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) as the fourteenth entry in the '' ...

''. Kew Bulletin Additional Series XIV: London. ''U. humboldtii'' possess the largest flower of the genus and most likely also the largest bladder traps. As it usually lives within the water-filled leaf axils of bromeliads, it occasionally needs to search for new pools of water, so it sends out upright stolons that find nearby bromeliads, descend into the water, and grow into a new plant.

References

Carnivorous plants of South America Flora of Brazil Flora of Guyana Flora of Venezuela humboldtii Epiphytes Taxa named by Robert Hermann Schomburgk {{Lentibulariaceae-stub

See also

References