Utricularia vulgaris

Ordinary water bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris)

The plant Ordinary water bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris) is an aquatic species from the genus of water hoses in the section Utricularia.

Description

The free-floating plant can be over 1 m have long stem axis. The segmented leaves are finely branched. The water leaves are one to eight inches long, divided into fine tip and provided with numerous bubble-like appendages.

An upright flower stems tower above the yellow flowers out out of the water. They make it loose, four-to fünfzehnblütige grapes. The individual flowers are two-lipped, golden yellow and active - bell-shaped, terminating in a curved spur. The flowers bloom from April to August. They are pollinated primarily by hoverflies.

Ecology

The ordinary water hose is submerged, rootless, free-floating aquatic plant. Only the heyday it floats to the top. It survives by spherical hazelnut-sized Turionen. It is a carnivorous plant, called a carnivore. The animals are trapped serves as an additional source of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds. The leaves are divided into ultrafine tip, of which about 20 per, a maximum of 200 to 4-5 mm long bladders are reshuffled. At a large plant over 26,000 bladders were counted. By bristled flap they are firmly locked from the inside. Your wall is occupied by various glands, such as mace glands that secrete sugary mucus, which serves to attracting potential prey.

Four-engine glands on the inner wall have three different functions:

1 pump after catching the water from the bladder by transport as ion pumps alkali ions outward and thus the osmotic value inside lower back so that a negative pressure of 0.1 bar is created.

2 indicate digestive enzymes from ( a protease, esterase, phosphatase) and benzoic acid.

3 take on the resulting degradation products for forwarding.

Touch small animals which serve as a lever hinged bristles, eg when feeding the bacteria adhering to these threads, so the flap snaps to the inside, and the animals are sucked or swallowed with the surrounding water in the catch tube. The process takes only 2 milliseconds and thus represents one of the fastest movements in the plant kingdom dar. followed by digestion and re- pumping the catch gland. After about 0.2-2 hours, the case is beginning again. In 600 examined hoses were a total of 2000 animals caught (up to 14 animals per tube), more than half of small crustaceans (eg, Daphnia ), but also insect larvae, such as mosquitoes. In the past, attempts have repeatedly been made ​​to use the plant for the biological control of plagues mosquitoes. This will only work against mosquitoes of the genus Culex. Against the man perceived as unpleasant mosquitoes of the genus Aedes, which breeds in shallow waters such as flooded meadows and water puddles, the settlement of the commons water hose does not help. Even small algae with captured.

The flowers are large golden yellow " mask flowers". The flower stem is sticky at the top of the Aufkriechschutz against " undesirable" flower visitors. The corolla has a 6-7 mm long spur as juice holder for the nectar. The double lip scar is the upper lip of the flower and is irritable: In case of contact, the lower lobe neighboring curves immediately to the top. The dust bag is unilocular. Since the mask is soft mostly hover flies pollinators, bees rarely; also self-pollination is not rare, in part you will also cleistogamous flowers. Bloom time is from April to August.

The fruits are irregular aufreißende capsules. The seed set is low. The seeds have two " air grooves " and are thus weeks buoyant and are subject to the floating diffusion and the water spread by waterfowl; they are light to germinate. Fruit ripening occurs in September.

Vegetative propagation is done by broken - even the smallest parts of the stalk - and Turionen.

Dissemination

The ordinary water hose is to be found in Europe, North Africa and temperate Asia. The plant is found equally in nutrient- poor and nutrient-rich, silent or weakly flowing water, preferably in full sun locations. It is mainly found in the lowlands, but may occasionally also occur at altitudes of 1000 meters. In Germany, the ordinary water hose on the red list of the ferns and flowering plants.