Seasonal Wild Flowers

Latin name

Pinguicula vulgaris

Other names

Bog Violet, Marsh Violet

Family

Lentibulariaceae

Flowering season

May to July

English distribution

It is found mainly in northern areas such as the Lake

District, the Pennines and the Peak District. It is

thinly scattered elsewhere.

For a map see the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland

– Common Butterwort

Habitat

It grow in damp, nutrient-poor habitats such as bogs,

wet heaths, moors, fens and where base-rich water

passes iinto acid soils.

Description

Common Butterwort is a native, rosette-forming, glandular,

insectivorous, perennial herb, growing up to 18cm.

The purple flowers are solitary on scapes up to 15cm.

The corolla forms a basal tube and broadens into a mouth

with upper and lower lips. The smaller upper lip is divided

into 2 lobes, and the bigger lower lip into 3 lobes. The

mouth of the flower has a white patch and numerous

white glands. 

There is a downwards and backwards projecting spur,

up to 7mm.

The scape and calyx are glandular.

The fruit is a capsule.

The leaves form a light green basal rosette.

The leaves are covered in glands which attract and trap

insects. The leaves then curl inwards and the prey is

digested.

The leaves disappear in the winter and Common Butterwort

overwinters as a rootless bud.