Utricularia trap microbiome

[collin]

I was doing some research about Utricularia when I stumbled across a really interesting paper. It turns out that Utricularia transport a large percentage of their photosynthetically fixed carbon (read: sugar) to their traps (25% and 20% for the two species studied, U. vulgaris and U. australis respectively). The authors hypothesize that this is to facilitate a microbial community, which may secrete allelochemicals that attract microcrustaceans. Just an interesting find that I wanted to share.

The more I learn about these plants the weirder they become.

 

[bluemax]

That's very interesting! Certainly this genus shows huge complexity in its morphology and methods.