Ricefield Bladderwort

This is for @SailWorldbuilds's Spectember art series:

Agriculture in India dates back thousands of years, and for much of that time, farmers have had to cope with the monsoon season, the time of year when the prevailing winds bring increased rain and frequent flooding. And as long as there has been flooding, there have been mosquitoes. Because mosquitoes breed in stagnant water, they often experience population explosions during the monsoon season, and outbreaks of diseases such as malaria can follow. But for a long time, traditional farmers in India have found an unlikely ally in their war against malaria outbreaks-- a plant.
The Ricefield Bladderwort (Utricularia indica is the only species of carnivorous plant to have been truly domesticated by humans. While many carnivorous plants, such as Venus flytraps, sundews, pitcher plants, and other species of bladderwort, are grown by hobbyists around the world, it is only in the flood-prone regions of India that we find truly domesticated carnivorous plants.
Bladderworts are the most widespread and diverse of all carnivorous plants, found on every landmass except Antarctica. Their prey usually consists of water-dwelling invertebrates, which are sucked into the pouch-like bladders attached to their roots. Most are aquatic, and the Ricefield Bladderwort is no exception. However, it has the largest traps of any bladderwort, and is easily capable of consuming much larger prey, up to the size of a mosquito larva-- something most other bladderwort species would struggle to digest. This is not entirely due to natural evolution; the Ricefield Bladderwort has been selectively bred over the course of its history for larger and larger traps, and therefore a preference for larger prey, making the plants more likely to kill mosquito larvae instead of smaller insects.
In addition to its utilitarian value, a number of "fancy" cultivars, or breeds, of Ricefield Bladderwort have been developed, three of which are shown here. From left to right, they are "Saffron" (developed in British India in the late 19th century, and the most commonly available today), "Pink Suggestion" (first developed in the 1980s in Florida), and "Blood Dagger" (the rarest and most expensive breed, considered a national symbol of India). The entire plant, including the underwater portion, is about two feet tall, most of which consists of a tall stem on which the flowers are located and a tangled array of photosynthesizing roots that also carry the traps.
The Ricefield Bladderwort is currently extinct in the wild and exists only in human cultivation, but it is currently believed to be related to the species Utricularia bifida, from which it must have diverged fairly recently. The plant itself seems to have been first cultivated in India in roughly 7000 BC, around the same time as rice cultivation began in the area. While no written records survive from this time, it is likely that contemporary farmers discovered the bladderwort's usefulness in controlling mosquitoes and began to deliberately cultivate them alongside their crops.
Nowadays, unfortunately, the Ricefield Bladderwort is in trouble. While it has benefited from its relationship with humans for thousands of years, the introduction of modern pesticides that kill mosquitoes much more efficiently means most farmers no longer keep them. Nevertheless, there is a movement in India to preserve the cultivation of this plant. In particular, environmental groups have begun advocating for its use as an alternative to pesticides-- while it is not as efficient, it does not leave any toxic byproducts to the surrounding ecosystem.