Originally coming to public notice in the 1951 John Wyndham novel “The Day of the Triffids”, Triffids (Triffidus celestus) are a large, mobile, carnivorous plant able to trap and devour large prey, including humans. While there are still questions as to their origin with some sources claiming Zaire, others claiming they are the result of experimentation in the former Soviet Union, while others claim extra terrestrial origins, they have been propagated commercially as a source of oil. Given current events and world oil prices they may come back into vogue.
While there are no known occurrences of Triffids in Australia, with the exception of an alternative rock band from Perth in the 1980’s, Australia does, however, have a number of carnivorous plant species. Australian carnivorous plants fall into three groups: pitcher plants, bladderworts and sundews.
Carnivory among plants is an evolutionary adaptation to growing in low nutrient soils and has evolved in around a dozen unrelated plant families.
In Australia Pitcher Plants are found on the opposite ends of the country with the Albany Pitcher Plant (Cephalotus follicularis) found in south west Western Australia and Tropical Pitcher Plants in northern Queensland (there’s around 4 Nepenthes species recognised in Australia though that is under constant revision).
There’s none in the Hunter so I won’t be covering these.
Bladderworts (Utricularia spp.) have around 60 representatives in Australia all emergent wetland plants that suck in and slowly digest aquatic insects. The Hunter Region has 7 recorded species of Utricularia (Bionet gives 8 but one had only one recording and was well out of its known range so I’m assuming a misidentification).
Yellow flowers
Golden Bladderwort (Utricularia aurea) flowers pale yellow, red brown veins Flowering in May. Suspended in the water with leaves 1-8cm long with 3-5 segments, 5-10 flowered. May be a misidentification as generally regarded as being north from Kempsey.
Yellow Bladderwort (Utricularia australis), yellow red brown lines, spots on lower lip. Flowering December-January. Suspended in the water, leaves 1-4cm, divided from the base into 2 more or less equal segments greatly divided from there, 4-10 flowered, growing in still or slowly flowing waterways, generally coastal though has been collected at Howes Swamp on the Putty Road.
Floating Bladderwort (Utricularia gibba), yellow often with reddish brown veins, flowering November – April. Leaves filiform, 0.5-1.5cm long, with 2, sometimes 1, primary segments then divided into 4 (rarely to 8) segments. 2-6 flowered.Generally in still or slow moving shallow water, mostly coastal though has been collected from Paterson.
Utricularia gibba flower. Photo credit: Jill Dark ©The Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust
Purple, mauve or white flowers
Small Bladderwort (Utricularia lateriflora) lilac to mauve or violet with white or yellow spot at base of lower lip, flowering throughout the year, terrestrial herb growing on wet sand or peaty heathland. Leaves narrow to oblanceolate, to 5cm long, 0.3-0.5mm wide, collected from around the Myall Lakes.
Asian Bladderwort (Utricularia uliginosa) lilac-violet rarely all white, flowering throughout the year, a terrestrial or subaquatic herb, growing in seasonally flooded, sandy ground, shallow pools, banks and rocky beds, leaves linear 5-6cm long, 1.5-6mm wide, collected from Morriset and Myall Lakes.
Photo credit: John & Patricia Edwards ©The Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust
Moth Bladderwort (Utricularia biloba) dark blue-violet with 2 white stripes at base of lower lip, flowering February to March, 2-20 flowered, terrestrial or subaquatic herb, larger leaves pinnately divided, growing in wet sand and shallow water in coastal heath.
Fairy Aprons (Utricularia dichotoma) violet or white with 2 or 3 yellow ridges, flower showing very obvious “apron” (see below), flowering August to April. A highly variable, widely distributed species with lots of subspecies, two subspecies collected from within the region: subspecies dichotoma collected from Barrington Tops, subspecies maritima collected from along the Putty Road
Photo credit: John & Patricia Edwards ©The Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust
While looking at the records for Bladderworts in this area there appears to be a big gap in collections from the Port Stephens to Newcastle area and only 9 recordings on iNaturalist, unfortunately the Hunter Region is a black hole for recordings of many plant species, and this is where you can help, download the iNaturalist app onto your smart phone and get out and start snapping.
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