Species library β€Ί Pinguicula β€Ί Pinguicula vulgaris
Carnivorous Well documented

Pinguicula vulgaris

Common butterwort

The common butterwort is a small, circumboreal carnivorous plant of wet, open ground: a rosette of sticky, yellow-green leaves 3–16 cm tall with violet flowers in early summer. It grows in bogs, fens, wet flushes and dripping rock ledges from the lowlands to the subalpine zone, often where the water is base-rich. It must have a cold winter, spent as a tight rootless bud (hibernaculum); without it the plant dies, so it is best grown outdoors or in a cold frame.

Pinguicula vulgaris
Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day Cool-growingTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Ordinary room humidityBand in Plantistry
Light Full sunDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
Expects a seasonal restGrows in the ground

Where it grows wild

Wet, open places: bogs, fens, seepage flushes, wet heath, stream banks and dripping rocks and ledges, usually among short vegetation or moss where competition is low. It is frequent in fens and flushes fed by base-rich or limestone water, but also occurs in more acidic bogs.

GBIF records run from 4 to 1778 m, median 1080 m (52 records with elevation); the high median reflects Alpine records, as most British, Scandinavian and Dutch sites are in the lowlands.

AlaskaAlbertaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBritish ColumbiaBuryatiyaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceFΓΈroyarGermanyGreat Britain

πŸ”’ Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

βœ“ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
βœ“ Humidity band, and how to hold it
βœ“ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
βœ“ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
βœ“ Substrate and airflow
βœ“ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, unmodified.