The Probert Encyclopaedia of Nature

BUTTERWORT

The butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris) is a perennial, carnivorous, herb of the family Lentibulariaceae, native to northern and central Europe where it grows in bogs, on damp heaths, moors and damp rocks. It has a basal rosette of sticky, entire, fleshy, bright yellow-green ovate leaves. The stickiness being caused by a fluid secreted by warty glands which catches and digests insects so as to provide the plant with the required nitrogen. When an insect becomes trapped, the leave curls up around it. Rising from the centre of the rosette are scapes which are topped by two-lipped, tubular, bluish-white coloured flowers with a long slender spur. The fruit is an ovoid capsule which splits into two halves.
Research Butterwort