Pinguicula ehlersiae

This neat little Mexican butterwort is flowering in the UConn greenhouses right now. Mexico is a hotspot of butterwort diversity, with about 25 different species. Pinguicula ehlersiae, like the majority of Mexican species in the genus, shows strongly seasonal growth. During the summer, when it tends to be rainy and humid in its habitat, it produces large, flat leaves that catch small insects in sticky secretions. In winter, P. ehlersiae grows the stubby, succulent leaves seen here, and can withstand a certain amount of drought. One usually thinks of carnivorous plants like the butterworts as being denizens of bogs and other wet places, but some Mexican Pinguicula grow right next to cacti, agaves, and other familiar succulent plants.

Pinguicula lusitanica - the Pale Butterwort

It's the dead of winter here in Connecticut, and Pinguicula lusitanica is looking its best. The biggest rosettes in the photo are only about 2 cm across, but that's about the maximum size for this annual to short-lived perennial carnivore from the western Mediterranean and Atlantic coast of Europe and northern Africa. The cultivation of this funny little butterwort perplexed me, until I realized that it is primarily winter-growing: the plants sulk in hot weather, and the seeds are reluctant to sprout in spring. It's now something of a weed in the carnivore collection out in the temperate greenhouse.

The leaves of Pinguicula lusitanica are distinctive, with edges curled over to the extent that they are almost tubular. The exposed part of the upper leaf surface is covered with hairs, and the sticky glandular trichomes are mostly hidden away under the curled margins (you can see some glandular surfaces exposed on the leaf at 7 o'clock on the rosette at left). Now I'm curious about how the plants trap insects in habitat: do the hairs guide prey into the overhanging part, where they are swamped in mucilage and digested? The traps seem almost pitcher plant-ish.