Utricularia aurea (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Utricularia aurea Lour.

Family: Lentibulariaceae

Synonyms

• Utricularia fasciculata Roxb.,
• U. flexuosa Vahl p.p.,
• U. reclinata Hassk.

Vernacular names

• Bladderwort (En)
• Indonesia: rumput gelembung (Indonesian), ganggang jepun (Javanese), klanibu udang (Kalimantan)
• Malaysia: lumut ekor kucing, lumut ekor kuning (Peninsular)
• Cambodia: sara:y
• Laos: nè:x ha:ng kaix, nè:x ha:ng kh'wa:y, nè:x khaix khied (Vientiane)
• Thailand: saaraai khaao nieo (central), saaraai naa (Bangkok), nae khruea (Chiang Mai).

Distribution

Widely distributed from India to Indo-China, China and Japan, throughout South-East Asia to Australia.

Uses

Regarded as an aquatic weed, sometimes troublesome, but also used to improve the water quality of fish ponds.

Observations

• Submerged, carnivorous, free-floating freshwater plant. Stem modified into a whorled foliar organ with forked filiform segments and bladders to capture insects or small fry.
• Inflorescence erect, with 5-10 flowers.
• Flowers zygomorphic, yellow; calyx 2-lobed; corolla spurred.
• Fruit a globose circumscissile capsule with numerous compressed, 5-angled seeds.

U. aurea is common in deep to shallow stagnant or slow-flowing water, in rice fields, and sometimes in swamp forest, up to 1200(-1500) m altitude.

Selected sources

• Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2nd Edition. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2444 pp.
• Flora Malesiana (various editors), 1950-. Series 1. Volume 1, 4-. Kluwer, Dordrecht & Flora Malesiana Foundation, Leiden, the Netherlands.
• Heyne, K., 1950. De nuttige planten van Indonesië [The useful plants of Indonesia]. 3rd Edition. 2 volumes. W. van Hoeve, the Hague, the Netherlands/Bandung, Indonesia. 261, 1450 pp.
• Smitinand, T., 1980. Thai plant names. Royal Forest Department, Bangkok, Thailand. 379 pp.
• Soerjani, M., Kostermans, A.J.G.H. & Tjitrosoepomo, G., 1987. Weeds of rice in Indonesia. Balai Pustaka, Jakarta, Indonesia. 716 pp.
• Taylor, P., 1989. The genus Utricularia - a taxonomic monogaph. Kew Bulletin Additional Series No 14. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, United Kingdom. 724 pp.
• Vidal, J., 1962. Noms vernaculaires de plantes en usage au Laos [Vernacular names of plants used in Laos]. Extrait du Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient 49, fasc. 2. 197 pp.

Authors

• M.S.M. Sosef & L.J.G. van der Maesen