Utricularia alpina
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Description
Utricularia alpina is a species from the section Orchidioides, a group of mainly epiphytic species with exceptionally showy flowers. Of all the species in this group, U. alpina is by far the easiest to grow, making it an excellent beginner's species.
The plant has remarkably large flowers compared to almost all other Utricularia species. The traps are also relatively large in this species and can be easily spotted (with a bit of magnification) on the underground stolons. The flowers are white, sometimes very pale purple in color.
The plant produces underground tubers to survive periods with less moisture and nutrients, which is typical for many epiphytic bladderworts. In the wild, U. alpina grows in mountainous cloud forests in the Caribbean and northern South America.
Distribution
Floristic provinces
Brazil North, Colombia, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Windward Is.
Habitat
It is a tuber-forming plant that grows on rocks or trees, and is mainly found in wet tropical areas. The plant thrives in mossy, airy and humid environments, often growing on tree trunks.
Cultivation
I grow them in an airy mix, for example a combination of bark, (dried) sphagnum and a little bit of peat. All in all not fussy at all. I keep them quite moist in a water tray with 1-2cm of water.
They produce stolons/runners that will form new plants. So if you guide these to another pot next to it, a new one will grow that you can eventually cut loose from the mother plant.
Watch out though, those runners are produced anyway, so even if you don't do anything with them, they'll just keep growing into the pots next to them even if that's not what you want!
Flowering Period
I grow them indoors, and here they usually flower in spring, around March–June. The lighting roughly follows a yearly cycle of daylight hours, which is likely the trigger for flowering. Additionally, a slight drop in nighttime temperature and a short resting period with less water seem to promote flowering.