PLANT THURSDAY // While this might look like an attractive flower, it is just the above ground part of the carnivorous bladderwort (Utricularia). The strange common name of this group of plants stems from their amazing subterranean traps, which function as pressurised bladders that suck in unsuspecting prey when tiny trigger hairs around the trap door are touched. These traps can capture prey in just fractions of second and represent some of the fastest movements known from within the plant kingdom.
Photo: the wonderful researcher Adam Cross.