Utricularia rostrata is a small annual

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

 (occasionally a 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...

) 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. rostrata is endemic to the Chapada Diamantina

Chapada Diamantina

Chapada Diamantina is a region of Bahia state, in the Northeast of Brazil.The Chapada Diamantina has a dramatic landscape with high plains, table-top mesas, and steep cliffs or towers known as 'tepuy.' Before the arrival of the Portuguese in the 19th century, the only local inhabitants of the...

 highlands of Bahia

Bahia

Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...

, 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 grows as a terrestrial plant in damp sandy soils near streams and waterfalls in semi-shaded areas at altitudes from 550 to 1570 m (1,804.5 to 5,150.9 ft). It was originally described and published by Andreas Fleischmann and Fernando Rivadavia in 2009, though specimens of this species had been discovered as early as 1992. Fleischmann and Rivadavia note that the species is common throughout the Chapada Diamantina highlands and its distribution includes Chapada Diamantina National Park

Chapada Diamantina National Park

The Chapada Diamantina National Park is a 1,520 km² national park in the Chapada Diamantina region of Bahia state in the Northeast of Brazil...

, thus justifying its ranking as a species of Least Concern

Least Concern

Least Concern is an IUCN category assigned to extant taxon or lower taxa which have been evaluated but do not qualify for any other category. As such they do not qualify as threatened, Near Threatened, or Conservation Dependent...

 under the IUCN.

Flowers of U. rostrata are white, mauve, or violet and the lower corolla lip has a yellow area on it. It has been placed in section Aranella

Utricularia sect. Aranella

Utricularia sect. Aranella is a section in the genus Utricularia. The ten species in this section are small terrestrial carnivorous plants native to tropical South America with one species also extending into tropical Africa. John Hendley Barnhart originally described and published this section in...

and appears to be most closely related to U. costata

Utricularia costata

Utricularia costata is a small, probably annual carnivorous plant that belongs to the genus Utricularia. U. costata is endemic to Brazil and Venezuela. It grows as a terrestrial or lithophytic plant in damp soils among rocks in savannas. It was originally described and published by Peter...

, though it differs from all members of section Aranella in its rostrate upper calyx lobe.