Common name: Fairy Aprons, Purple Bladderwort
Utricularia dichotoma Labill. APNI* Description: Terrestrial or subaquatic perennial or annual herb. Stolons numerous, capillary, branched. Rhizoids numerous, capillary, simple.
Leaves usually few, rosulate and at stolon nodes; petiolate, narrowly linear to elliptic 3–80 mm long, 1–5 mm wide; with apex rounded to acute. Traps numerous, at the peduncle base and at stolon nodes, globose, polymorphic, 1–5 mm long, stalked; mouth lateral with a simple dorsal appendage, and a pair of fimbriate dorsal appendages, and smaller fimbriate lateral appendages.
Inflorescences solitary, several or successive, erect; flowers 1–9; peduncle 10–560 mm long, 0.5–1.5 mm thick; bracts and bracteoles basifixed and basally gibbous or shortly spurred below the point of attachment; pedicels erect, 1.5–15 mm long. Calyx lobes unequal; upper lobe orbicular or oblong-elliptic, 2–5 mm long; lower lobe narrower with apex shortly bifid. Corolla 6–22 mm long, violet or white with 2 or 3 prominent yellow ridges basally, central set of yellow ridges exceeding lateral ones distally; upper lip circular or obovate; lower lip transversely elliptic, semicircular or flabellate; spur variable, cylindrical with apex obtuse or acute, shorter or longer than lower lip.
Capsule globose, 2.5–7 mm long. Seeds obovoid, c. 0.5 mm long.
Flowering: August–April
Distribution and occurrence: Occurs from Kangaroo Island and the Flinders Ranges in South Australia eastward to New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, and to Queensland south of Blackdown Tableland, and in New Zealand and New Caledonia. Grows in peaty or sandy soil in shallow pools in wet grassland, montane springs and lagoons, recharge springs of the GAB, creek seepages, wet heathland, wallum swampland, and alpine meadows, from sea level up to 2000-m altitude.
NSW subdivisions: NC, CC, SC, NT, CT, ST, NWS
Other Australian states: Qld Vic. Tas. S.A.
Taylors (1989) concept of U. dichotoma included the Robert Brown entities U. speciosa and U. oppositiflora that have since been raised to species status (Jobson & Baleeiro 2020). Jobson & Baleeiro (2020) included U. monanthos Hook.f, along with seven other U. dichotoma entities, at subspecies level.
Text by R.W. Jobson
Taxon concept: Australian Systematic Botany 33: 278-310 (2020).
| | Key to the subspecies | |
| 1 | Lower corolla lip shorter than the corolla spur | subsp. fontana |
| Lower corolla lip equal to or longer than the corolla spur | 2 |
| 2 | Bracts and bracteoles distinctly spurred at base | 3 |
| Bracts and bracteoles distinctly gibbous at base
Back to 1 | 5 |
| 3 | Bracts and bracteoles broadly ovate; apex rounded | subsp. oxleyensis |
| Bracts and bracteoles narrowly ovate; apex acute
Back to 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Bract and bracteole basal spur apex narrow, rounded | subsp. maritima |
| Bract and bracteole basal spur apex broad, usually quadrate
Back to 3 | subsp. dichotoma |
| 5 | Inflorescences 12–40 cm long; lower corolla lip 15–20 mm long; emergent aquatic | subsp. novae-angliae |
| Inflorescences 2–56 cm long; lower corolla lip 5–16 mm long; terrestrial
Back to 2 | 6 |
| 6 | Peduncle 15–56 cm long; lower corolla lip 10–16 mm long | subsp. aquilonia |
| Peduncle 2–5 cm long, usually 1-flowered, corolla violet
Back to 5 | subsp. monanthos |
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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