FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So i was going through some older posts just reading and looking at pictures when I came across a post about U.calycifida. It said something about it trapping its prey in little white balls in the roots? What does it eat and how does this work?

it eats small lifeforms like daphnia and peat bug. (i saw one catch a tadpole. you should you tube it) the traps, when triggered, create a vauum and suck to bug i the traps

Like stitz said, all Utricularia have tiny bladders (hence the name "Bladderwort") attached to their roots. These bladders have a microscopic trigger hair which, when activated, opens the bladder which ejects any air that is inside, this then causes it to flood (creating a vaccume) and drag in any microscopic lifeforms in the soil -- or if an aquatic variety, in the water.

And here's an uprooted U.calycifida:



As Grey said, the traps are vacuum-type ones.

Peter

yea thats the picture from the post i was referring to! Im gonna go youtube it right now. So how do you feed a plant like that?

Good question, how do you feed it then, this plants most be really strong then, because of the water being heavier, and the soil, they must have lots of energy in order to eat insects then.
i guess?

I'm not sure as though you can feed terrestrial varieties unless you purposfully introduce bugs into the soil.. and even then there are no guarentees.

There's no need for that, but some fertilise them. Ocasionally they'll catch springtails, lots of them in my pots.

Peter