Bladderwort Botanizing in Nepal - Observation of the Week, 11/21/23

Our Observation of the Week is this Utricularia kumaonensis bladderwort plant, seen in Nepal by @elizabeth_byers!

“I grew up in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York state where nature is dramatic and accessible,” says Elizabeth Byers, who’s currently a wetland ecologist in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia. “I love the verticality of biodiversity in the mountains, walking upward through different life zones and discovering hidden treasures on cliffs, in deep forests, and in little jeweled wetlands.”

And it’s not just the Appalachians where Elizabeth works, she has a special interest in subalpine and alpine ecosystems of eastern Nepal. Last year, she and her husband Alton spent five months in Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, a roadless part of eastern Nepal, where they studied alpine ecosystems on a Fulbright grant. Even getting to their research area involved walking a week from the nearest road, in canyons along the Tamur River. 

The Tamur River has some impressive riverside cliffs, and the trail snakes up and down the side slopes to circumvent them. There is one spot where a dangerous boardwalk has been built right along the cliff face directly over the rapids of the river, and the river spray washes the seepy moss-covered cliff face (and anyone walking by). For a botanically-minded person, this habitat is the mother lode for Utricularia species, tiny carnivorous plants that grow on wet cliffs where soil is essentially absent. Utricularia, also called bladderworts, derive nitrogen from miniscule insects that are lured into tiny spheres or bladders on the plant’s roots.  The bait is a sweet nectar, and once through the trapdoor there is no escape. Digestive fluids flood the bladder and digest the insect.

So, while carefully navigating the precarious boardwalk over the river, I stopped and braced my feet to search for Utricularia. My gasp of surprise and awe was completely inaudible above the roar of the rapids - there were literally tens of thousands of them in perfect bloom along the cliff face, more than I’ve ever seen in all of my wanderings. Shielding my camera (a Panasonic Lumix DC-ZS70) from the wet spray, I took a bunch of photos and collected a specimen to bring back to the National Herbarium in Kathmandu.

As Elizabeth said, bladderworts grow in wet areas where there isn't much soil - pretty much only the flowers are what stick out. Some, especially in Central and South America, are epiphytic and have large, showy, orchid-like flowers. 

“I've recently completed a field guide (mobile app) to the “Wildflowers of Mount Everest” in Nepal, and I’m working on a book on the “Flowers of Mount Kanchenjunga” with three Nepali colleagues, plus contributing to the upcoming “Primroses of Nepal” book,” says Elizabeth (above, taking the first-ever photograph of the rare Primula ramzanae).

iNaturalist has changed how I collaborate with international colleagues, how I develop restoration tools, and how I teach plant identification classes. It has also allowed me to enrich my life by learning some biota that are not in Plantae. It’s a transformational database and a remarkable community of experts and enthusiasts that is making nature more accessible while so many other forces in the world are distancing us from our roots. Especially in remote areas, it is a key tool for documenting biodiversity.

(Photo of Elizabeth by Alton Byers. Some quotes have been lightly edited.)

- here’s an explanatory video of how a bladderwort’s bladder trap actually works, and some nice footage of one in action.

- check out the most-faved bladderworts on iNat!

Posted on November 21, 2023 11:45 PM by tiwane