Pinguicula lusitanica

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Pinguicula lusitanica
Pinguicula lusitanica.JPG
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lentibulariaceae
Genus: Pinguicula
Species:
P. lusitanica
Binomial name
Pinguicula lusitanica
L.   [2]

Pinguicula lusitanica, commonly known as the pale butterwort, [3] is a small butterwort that grows wild in acidic peat bog areas along coastal atlantic western Europe from western Scotland and Ireland south through western England and western France to the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco in north-western Africa.

It usually forms rosettes 3–5 centimetres (1.2–2.0 in) across. It is a perennial plant that sometimes acts as an annual plant as it may die after one growth season. It flowers just months after germinating and produces copious amounts of seed, making it somewhat of a weed for carnivorous plant growers. The flowers are small, pale pink with a yellow centre, and funnel-shaped. It self-pollinates to ensure that it will grow back the following year.

Cultivation

Pinguicula lusitanica grows easily in most environments as long as it is not directly exposed to the sun and is kept wet with rainwater. It will feed on any small insects including gnats, fruit flies, ants, small moths, and small mosquitos. Pinguicula lusitanica is considered an easy grower by many carnivorous plant growers and is a good candidate as a beginner carnivorous plant.

Related Research Articles

<i>Pinguicula moranensis</i> Perennial insectivorous herb in the family Lentibulariaceae native to Mexico and Guatemala

Pinguicula moranensis is a perennial rosette-forming insectivorous herb native to Mexico and Guatemala. A species of butterwort, it forms summer rosettes of flat, succulent leaves up to 10 centimeters (4 in) long, which are covered in mucilaginous (sticky) glands that attract, trap, and digest arthropod prey. Nutrients derived from the prey are used to supplement the nutrient-poor substrate that the plant grows in. In the winter the plant forms a non-carnivorous rosette of small, fleshy leaves that conserves energy while food and moisture supplies are low. Single pink, purple, or violet flowers appear twice a year on upright stalks up to 25 centimeters long.

<i>Pinguicula grandiflora</i> Species of plant

Pinguicula grandiflora, commonly known as the large-flowered butterwort, is a temperate insectivorous plant in the Lentibulariaceae family. One distinguishing feature of the species is its flower, which is much larger than the average for the genus.

<i>Pinguicula alpina</i> Species of plant

Pinguicula alpina, also known as the alpine butterwort, is a species of carnivorous plant native to high latitudes and altitudes throughout Eurasia. It is one of the most widespread Pinguicula species, being found in mountainous regions from Iceland to the Himalayas. Native to cold climates, it is a temperate species, forming prostrate rosettes of green to red leaves and white flowers in the summer and a tight hibernaculum during a period of winter dormancy in the winter. Like all members of the genus, P. alpina uses mucilaginous glands covering the surface of its summer leaves to attract, trap, and digest arthropod prey.

<i>Pinguicula primuliflora</i> Species of plant

Pinguicula primuliflora, commonly known as the southern butterwort or primrose butterwort, is a species of carnivorous plant belonging to the genus Pinguicula. It is native to the southeastern United States. The typical variety forms a white flower in blooming. Like other butterworts, it has sticky adhesive leaves which attract, capture and digest arthropod prey in order to supply the plant with nutrients such as nitrogen not found in the nutrient poor, acidic soil that it grows in. Its name derives from the fact it is usually the first one to flower in the spring.

<i>Pinguicula ramosa</i> Species of carnivorous plant

Pinguicula ramosa is a species of butterwort, a carnivorous plant, endemic to the mountains of Nikkō National Park in Japan. It belongs to the section micranthus and is closely related to Pinguicula variegata. It is unique in the genus for having a forked flower stalk.

<i>Prunus lusitanica</i> Species of flowering plant

Prunus lusitanica, the Portuguese laurel cherry or Portugal laurel, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae, native to southwestern France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Macaronesia.

<i>Pinguicula vulgaris</i> Species of flowering plant in the bladderwort family Lentibulariaceae

Pinguicula vulgaris, the common butterwort, is a perennial carnivorous plant in the bladderwort family, Lentibulariaceae. It grows to a height of 3–16 cm, and is topped with a purple, and occasionally white, flower that is 15 mm or longer, and shaped like a funnel. This butterwort grows in damp environments such as bogs and swamps, in low or subalpine elevations. It has a generally circumboreal distribution, being native to almost every country in Europe as well as Russia, Canada, and the United States. Being native to environments with cold winters, they produce a winter-resting bud (hibernaculum). There are three forms originating from Europe: P. vulgaris f. bicolor which has petals that are white and purple; P. vulgaris f. albida which has all white petals; and P. vulgaris f. alpicola which has larger flowers. The taxonomic status of these forms is not universally recognised - see e.g. The Plant List.

<i>Erica lusitanica</i> Species of flowering plant

Erica lusitanica is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, known by the common names Portuguese heath and Spanish heath. It is native to Portugal, Spain and southwestern France. It is named for Lusitania, a historical region encompassing most of modern Portugal and parts of western Spain.

Carnivorous plant Plants which eat animals and herbivores

Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. However, carnivorous plants generate energy from photosynthesis. Carnivorous plants have adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic bogs. Charles Darwin wrote Insectivorous Plants, the first well-known treatise on carnivorous plants, in 1875. Carnivorous plants can be found on all continents except Antarctica, as well as many Pacific islands.

<i>Pinguicula orchidioides</i> Species of carnivorous plant

Pinguicula orchidioides is a perennial rosette-forming insectivorous herb native to Mexico and Guatemala. A species of butterwort, it forms summer rosettes of flat, succulent leaves up to 5 centimeters (2 in) long, which are covered in mucilaginous (sticky) glands that attract, trap, and digest arthropod prey. Nutrients derived from the prey are used to supplement the nutrient-poor substrate that the plant grows in. Uniquely among Pinguicula species from the Americas, p. orchidioides produces gemma-like basal buds which elongate into stolons and serve as a means of asexual reproduction. In the winter the plant forms a non-carnivorous rosette of small, fleshy leaves that conserves energy while food and moisture supplies are low. Single purple flowers appear between July and September on upright stalks up to 22 centimeters long.

<i>Pinguicula elizabethiae</i> Species of carnivorous plant

Pinguicula elizabethiae is a perennial rosette-forming insectivorous herb native to the Mexican states of Querétaro and Hidalgo. A species of butterwort, it forms summer rosettes of flat, succulent leaves up to 5 centimeters (4 in) long, which are covered in mucilaginous (sticky) glands that attract, trap, and digest arthropod prey. Nutrients derived from the prey are used to supplement the nutrient-poor substrate that the plant grows in. In the winter the plant forms a non-carnivorous rosette of small, fleshy leaves that conserves energy while food and moisture supplies are low. Single purple flowers appear between July and October on upright stalks up to 75 millimeters long.

<i>Pinguicula</i> Genus of flowering plants in the family Lentibulariaceae

Pinguicula, commonly known as the butterworts, is a genus of carnivorous flowering plants in the family Lentibulariaceae. They use sticky, glandular leaves to lure, trap, and digest insects in order to supplement the poor mineral nutrition they obtain from the environment. Of the roughly 80 currently known species, 13 are native to Europe, 9 to North America, and some to northern Asia. The largest number of species is in South and Central America.

<i>Pinguicula ionantha</i> Species of carnivorous plant

Pinguicula ionantha is a rare species of flowering plant in the butterwort family known by the common names Godfrey's butterwort and violet butterwort. It is endemic to the US state of Florida, where it only occurs in the central Florida Panhandle. It is threatened by the loss of its habitat, and it is a federally listed threatened species of the United States.

<i>Pinguicula lutea</i> Species of carnivorous plant

Pinguicula lutea, commonly known as the yellow butterwort, is a species of warm-temperate carnivorous plant in the family Lentibulariaceae. It grows in savannas and sandy bog areas of the Southeastern United States.

<i>Pinguicula balcanica</i> Species of plant

Pinguicula balcanica, also known as the Balkanian butterwort, is a perennial carnivorous plant in the family Lentibulariaceae.

<i>Pinguicula macroceras</i> Species of carnivorous plant

Pinguicula macroceras, the California butterwort or horned butterwort, is a species of perennial carnivorous herb that is native to the North American Pacific coast, as well as other select distributions in Canada, Russia, Japan, and the United States.[3] [7] Common names include California butterwort, horned butterwort and butterwort. Pinguicula macroceras belongs to the genus Pinguicula and the family Lentibulariaceae.

<i>Pinguicula caerulea</i> Species of carnivorous plant

Pinguicula caerulea, commonly referred to as blue butterwort, blueflower butterwort, or violet butterwort, is a flowering plant species in the carnivorous butterwort (Pinguicula) genus and bladderwort family (Lentibulariaceae). It is a perennial dicot. It grows in moist sandy pineland habitat in the south-east USA. Caerulus is Latin for from the sky or sea and refers to the color of the flowers.

<i>Pinguicula pumila</i> Species of plant

Pinguicula pumila, commonly known as the small butterwort or dwarf butterwort is a small species of carnivorous plant in the genus Pinguicula. It is native to the southeastern United States, where it grows in habitats where soil is poor in nutrition.

Pinguicula hemiepiphytica is a tropical carnivorous plant species native to the cloud forests of Oaxaca, Mexico. It was first identified in 1991 and is one of the few epiphytic species in the genus.

References

  1. van den Broek, M.; Rumsey, F. (2018). "Pinguicula lusitanica". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2018: e.T164050A19631926. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-1.RLTS.T164050A19631926.en . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. Flora Europaea: Pinguicula lusitanica
  3. BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.