Utricularia nelumbifolia is a large perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 aquatic carnivorous plant

Carnivorous plant

Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants appear adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic...

 that belongs to the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Utricularia. U. nelumbifolia, an epiphytic

Epiphyte

An epiphyte is a plant that grows upon another plant non-parasitically or sometimes upon some other object , derives its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and sometimes from debris accumulating around it, and is found in the temperate zone and in the...

 species, is endemic to Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. It was originally published and described by George Gardner

George Gardner (botanist)

George Gardner was a Scottish naturalist mainly interested in botany.Gardner's father was a gardener first to to the Earl of Dunmore in Ardentinny, then from 1816 to the Earl of Eglinton at Ardrossan. In 1822, his parents moved to Glasgow where he attended the grammar-school and acquired a...

 in 1842. Its habitat is reported as being restricted to the water-filled leaf axils of Vriesia

Vriesia

Vriesea is a genus of the botanical family Bromeliaceae, subfamilyTillandsioideae. The genus name is for Willem Hendrik de Vriese, Dutch botanist, physician ....

species, which are bromeliads, in arid volcanic locations at altitudes from 800 m (2,625 ft) to 2200 m (7,217.8 ft). U. nelumbifolia will produce aerial stolon

Stolon

In biology, stolons are horizontal connections between organisms. They may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton; typically, animal stolons are external skeletons.-In botany:...

s that descend into nearby leaf axils in order to colonize new territory, similar to the habit of U. humboldtii

Utricularia humboldtii

Utricularia humboldtii is a large perennial carnivorous plant that belongs to the genus Utricularia. Peter Taylor lists it as either an "aquatic-epiphyte", a subaquatic or a terrestrial species. U. humboldtii is endemic to South America, where it is found in Brazil, Guyana, and Venezuela. It...

. It typically flowers from May to August.