This gorgeous emerald bulb at the top of this native bladderwort is its winter bud (turion) - how exquisite is that! It forms this leafy bulge at the end of the season, ready for quick getting-back-to-life in the spring. The heftiness of it also helps it sink to the bottom where it overwinters.
Also in this picture is one of its parasitic bladders. When the hairs are triggered, it entraps zooplankton in less than a millisecond, and operates with 600Gs (i.e. the acceleration by which it is sucked in is 600 times the force of gravity.) A phenomenal adaptation.
2 comments:
Beautiful work. You have a gift for photography.... wouldn't be nice if you pulled some of these posts together and gave a presentation at our library??
Thank you, Dennis 😊
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