I noticed some small, green, mossy-looking balls floating in the lake on my first paddle of the season, so brought them home to look at more closely. They looked pretty nondescript and I assumed they were either seeds that had dropped into the lake from an overhanging shrub, or might be algal balls.
I decided to try Google Lens for some suggestions, and was first led to Marimo (spherical moss balls) which didn't seem right, so I delved further down the suggestions and was heartened to find a reference to a bladderwort, written in Czech, which I got Google to translate for me. The species they referenced doesn't occur here, but it was mentioned as being close to our Northern bladderwort, Utricularia intermedia, which also produces a neat little winter bud (turion). So, it was probably not a terrestrial seed after all, as I had first thought.
I left some intact balls floating in water whilst I was away recently, and when I returned a few days later, I was greeted with this fantastic sight: a new Northern bladderwort shoot erupting from the green ball, just as described in our Field guide "At the end of the growing season, plants sink to the sediments and decay. The winter buds over-winter intact. When the water warms in spring, winter buds inflate with air and float to the surface where new growth begins." Perfection!
How exciting! I'd not disputed what I'd read, but had never truly appreciated the process until now. There's something quite special about seeing it happen, as opposed to merely reading about it. Having experienced it makes this mechanism for regeneration of a new plant believable and memorable - I shan't forget it.
I am so very glad my curiosity got the better of me, and I didn't just dismiss the tiny green balls as algae or indeterminable seeds.
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