Yellow Bladderwort a.k.a. Golden-Crowned Flesh-Eating Water-Walker

The sudden April shower is light, but steady,
tickling the surface just enough to muddle our reflection
as we peer out at the fascinating flotilla of flora before us...

stalks mostly erect, some drooping just a bit beneath the accumulated weight
of the raindrops on their shapely golden blossoms, 

we think we've seen these remarkable creatures once before, 

farther east, 

sharing the domain of other carnivorous plants like the venus flytrap and sundew.

If we are correct, 

then these are a species of bladderwort, 

carnivorous plants which utilize miniature bladder-like organs on their "roots" 

to engulf tiny arthropods and extract nutrients land-dwelling plants might obtain from the soil.

Interestingly,

in the nearly dry trickle of a stream just behind the beaver dam,

a few dozen hardy souls are mimicking their terrestrial kin,

modified basal rosette of "leaves" resting directly on the saturated soil.

While out on the pond, 

the rest of the colony seems to revel in their collective uniqueness,

perched solidly near the pond's liquid surface,

blissfully unaware of the oddity of their appearance

in the eyes of their now sodden earthbound observers, 

absorbed as we are in our watching 

of these golden-crowned flesh-eating water walkers.