Yellow Beauties

The flowers of our aquatic bladderworts look so much like snapdragons, gracefully held above the water by a long flower stalk. This is the Common Bladderwort, Utricularia vulgaris, amongst the floating leaves of another yellow beauty, Spatterdock.

The rigid flower stalk of Spatterdock (Nuphar lutea) needs no assistance, but the pinkish, less robust Watershield flower benefits from the supportive, protected spaces that Spatterdock's floating leaves provide.

If you don't stop and look closely at what initially looks like a monoculture of Spatterdock, you'd miss the Bladderwort and Watershield (Brasenia schreberi) flowers interspersed among them.