Plants of
South Australia
Utricularia dichotoma
Lentibulariaceae
Fairies Apron,
Purple Bladderwort
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Regional Species Conservation Assessments per IBRA subregion.
Least concern
Near threatened
Rare
Vulnerable
Endangered
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Extinct
Data deficient
Adelaide
Arkaroola
Ceduna
Coober Pedy
Hawker
Innamincka
Marla
Marree
Mount Gambier
Oodnadatta
Renmark
Wudinna
Keith
Yunta
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Common names

Fairies Apron

Purple Bladderwort

Etymology

Utricularia from the Latin 'utriculus' meaning a small bottle or bladder; referring to a small insect trapping sac attached to the underground leaves. Dichotoma from the Greek 'dichotomia' meaning divided in two or forked; referring to paired flowers.

Distribution and status

Found on Kangaroo Island, southern Mount Lofty Ranges and the South-east in South Australia, growing in damp or wet heathy habitats. Also found in all States except the Northern Territory. Native. Rare in South Australia. Rare in Western Australia. Common in the other states.
Herbarium regions: Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island, South Eastern, Green Adelaide
NRM regions: Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges, Kangaroo Island, South East
AVH map: SA distribution map (external link)

Plant description

Tiny terrestrial, perennial herb. Leaves rosetted and on stolons, narrow-linear to broad-elliptic, to 140 mm long and 5 mm wide. Inflorescence 1 to several, erect spike to 50 cm long with 1–9 dark violet flowers, upper lip circular to obovate, rounded or emarginate, lower lip much larger, variable, obtrullate to almost circular, with 2 or more conspicuous yellow central ridges flanked by several less conspicuous violet ridges. Flowering between October and December but can be spasmodically throughout the year. Fruits are reddish brown globular capsule to 5 mm diameter. Seeds are tiny brown ovoid seed to 0.6 mm long and 0.4 mm wide, with a thin mesh-like surface.

Seed collection and propagation

Collect seeds between February and October. Collect mature capsules, those turning reddish brown colour, fat and containing brown seeds. Can collect individual capsules or break off the whole stem. Place the capsules in a tray and leave to dry for two weeks. Then rub the capsules gently by hand to dislodge the seeds. Use a sieve to separate the unwanted material. Store the seeds with a desiccant such as dried silica beads or dry rice, in an air tight container in a cool and dry place. From one collection, the seed viability is high, at 100%.

Seeds stored:
  Hide
LocationNo. of seeds
(weight grams)
Number
of plants
Date
collected
Collection number
Collection location
Date
stored
% ViabilityStorage
temperature
 
MSB

7,500 (0.507 g)
50+12-Dec-2006TST139
Kangaroo Island
Location: BGA — the seeds are stored at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, MSB — the seeds are stored at the Millennium Seed Bank, Kew, England.
Number of plants: This is the number of plants from which the seeds were collected.
Collection location: The Herbarium of South Australia's region name.
% Viability: Percentage of filled healthy seeds determined by a cut test or x-ray.