Ha! Found them!
Just after noon, I found a yellow flower poking out of the
water. Then another, then another. Soon I had located a nice little
semi-aquatic cluster of these plants. They were growing among other
emergent plants, and at first I was afraid I might have a different
species than yesterday's boardwalk plants. But
no, they had the same tiny floats!
Now to study them more closely... They
were a distance away from the water's edge, so I had to figure out how
to get them. I picked up the second suitable stick I found (the first
was partially buried under some fire ant mounds), shooed away a
cottonmouth near the water's edge, and after some embarrassing failures
I managed to snag some plants and bring them in.
I looked at the floats close up--yep; and the secondary leaf
segments--yep; and the floral spurs--yep! This was a fine stand of
Utricularia radiata! I was exhilarated. Time to take some
photographs!
Ah, but the best was yet to come. As I worked quietly to capture my
mind's image of the scene on film, the most darling imaginable baby
alligator swam along and started foraging for food among the plants!
