Purple Carnivore

This beautiful little display is the flower of an aquatic carnivorous plant, the large purple bladderwort (Utricularia purpurea). It's not a purple people eater, but a purple planktonic eater ...

It has bladders on its "foliage" that trap teeny tiny animals swimming or floating past. There's a niche for everything!

The little dots on the plant below are the traps that help keep insect larvae numbers down (read mosquitoes!).