Annual or perennial herb 10 - 25 cm tall
Stem: with six to fourteen nodes and erect flowering branches, green to yellowish green, 10 - 25 cm long.
Leaves: below ground or submersed, tiny, inconspicuous.
Flowers: fully opening (chasmogamous), borne one to six on a flower stalk (scape), subtended by bracts with inner secondary bracts. The petals are yellow and two-lipped with a 9 - 16 mm long lower lip having a large rounded projection at the center of the lip, and the upper lip being a bit shorter and much narrower than the lower lip. Spur (extended sac at base of petals) 7 - 14 mm long, pointing downward.
Fruit: a two-valved capsule containing small seeds.
Roots: finely branched, having tiny bladders.
Similar species: Utricularia subulata is also a terrestrial Utricularia species with leaves that are linear or absent. It differs by commonly having flowers that remain closed (cleistogamous) and rarely having flowers that open (chasmogamous).
Flowering: early June to late October
Habitat and ecology: Very rare in the Chicago Region, growing in calcareous pannes near Lake Michigan.
Occurence in the Chicago region: native
Etymology: Utricularia comes from the Latin word utriculus, meaning "a small bottle."This refers to the insect-trapping bladders on the leaves and runners of the bladderworts. Cornuta means horn-shaped.
Author: The Morton Arboretum
