FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I was just wondering... Do all Utricularia form turions when they go dormant, or only fully aquatic species? If so, how do terrestrial and semi-aquatic Utrics go dormant?

Not all Utricularia form turions. One of the main things to consider is whether they even have dormancy. Only species that encounter seasonally harsh conditions in their native habitat (e.g. cold winters, extremely hot and dry summers, etc) will go dormant. In fact, there's many more species of CP's that don't go dormant at all than there are species that do go dormant.

Most terrestrial Utricularia originating from relatively stable climates in Asia, subtropical Africa, and South America, generally don't encounter anything bad enough to necessitate dormancy, so they simply haven't evolved a means to do so. On top of that, many of the ones that do encounter harsh conditions are annuals in the wild, so they just set seed and die before going dormant. Considering this, the vast majority of terrestrial Utricularia simply don't go dormant at all.

An exception to this is U. menziesii, which goes dormant over the summer as tubers. Epiphytic Utricularia also weather dry seasons in their natural habitat as tubers.