Carnivorous Plants 1: Butterwort

If every there was a Jekyll-and-Hyde of the plant kingdom, this is surely it. At this time of year common butterwort Pinguicula vulgaris produces delightful little violet flowers that attract pollinating insects that ensure that it sets seed, while at the same time catching and digesting small insects on that rosette of sickly yellowish-green leaves down at soil level.

These plants thrive on the permanently boggy conditions on the old lead mine ore-washing floors at Middlehope Burn in Weardale. There's very little nitrogen in the ground but the small insects that they digest make up for that. The surface of the leaf is covered in glistening, stalked glands producing mucilage that glues the insect down, then tiny glands embedded in the leaf surface release diestive enzymes that convert it into nutritious soup. The rolled edges of the leaves keep the pool of digestive enzymes in place. To see the capture and digestive glands of another, more exotic butterwort species in more detail, click here. The glands release protein-digesting enzymes that curdle milk and butterwort leaves were once used in the first steps in making butter - hopefully making sure that there were no flies stuck to the leaf first!

Butterwort keeps its welcoming flowers and deadly digestive equipment well separated via a tall flower stalk...

... and the precious nectar, there to attract small bee pollinators equipped with a suitably long proboscis, lies inside that nectar spur that you can see at the back of the flower - protected by a forest of fine hairs that prevent small, non-pollinating insects from crawling in and stealing it.