Hey look!
Near the end of the boardwalk, by a flock
of foraging white ibis, I saw this population of flowering
Utricularia. With one glance, I tentatively identified it as
Utricularia inflata--you can see the radial set of spokes on
the flower stalks, just below the water surface. These spokes are
characteristic of Utricularia inflata.
I have seen U. inflata many times (even as an
invasive, non-native species in Washington state, where it was crowding
out native species), so this was not a particularly exciting moment
in the trip. Worth a photograph, though.
But what a minute....there's
just one problem with my species diagnosis....
