Bladderworts can be so attractive that avid utrickers grow and propagate as many species as they are able to find, then swap them or buy other varieties from fellow enthusiasts. It's a convenient pastime, for an entire utric garden may occupy only a countertop. For the true enthusiast, there are catalogs of available species and entire books devoted to utric growing. The hobby is well-ensconced, but only among Utricularia cognoscenti. Better known carnivorous plants include sundews, the Venus flytrap, and pitcher plants, but even the most common bladderwort is as effective a trap as any of these.
Many common bladderworts float freely in the water because they have no roots.
Not all utrics are aquatic, however, for some of the showy varieties elsewhere live in marshy soil and produce larger flowers, to the delight of collectors. The distinction between the two kinds is not always clear, for some terrestrial utrics can produce aquatic stages, and the water utrics may occasionally live in wet soil. Aquatic bladderwort foliage is delicate and fern-like, but when hundreds of strands are bunched together, they form dense, compact mats in shallow water. The true nature of bladderwort is apparent only with very close examination, and here the reason for their English name is clear. The slender leaves bear large numbers of small pear-shaped bladders, each about an eighth of an inch long.