Butterwort (Pinguicula elizabethiae)
Description
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 mucilagenous (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. The species was described in 1999 by S. Zamudio, who placed in the section Orcheosanthus. It is closely related to P. colimensis. The generic name Pinguicula is derived from the Latin pinguis (meaning "fat") due to the buttery texture of the surface of the carnivorous leaves. The specific epithet elizabethiae refers to Zamudio's friend Elizabeth Arguelles, an enthusiastic collector of flora from Querétaro. The leaf blades of the summer rosettes of P. elizabethiae are smooth, rigid, and succulent, and green in color. The laminae are generally obovate–spatulate to suborbicular–spatulate, between 35 and 72 millimeters (1 3⁄8–3 in.) long and 10–53 millimeters (⅜–2 in.) wide, and have slightly involute margins. The leaf bases are covered in 5–10 millimeter multicellular trichomes. The "winter" or "resting" rosette of P. elizabethiae is 10–20 millimeters (⅜–13⁄16 in.) in diameter and consists of 60 to 125 small, compact, fleshy, non-glandular leaves. These are each 5 to 17 millimeters (3⁄16–11⁄16 in.) long and two to four millimeters (1⁄16–3⁄16 in.) wide, spatulate to oblong-spatulate, obtuse, and densely covered with 5–10 millimeter multicellular trichomes.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Lamiales
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Family: Lentibulariaceae
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Genus: Pinguicula
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