PURPLE BUTTERWORT 
Pinguicula elatior Michaux 
Purple butterwort is a dainty and beautiful plant. It grows in 
moist sandy pine woods on the Coastal Plain, often in association 
with other purple or yellow butterworts. Although in Florida it 
may be found in flower at almost any season, it blooms most profusely 
in spring. The solitary flower is poised at the top of a slender stalk 
springing from the center of a rosette of pale green leaves, which 
usually lie flat against the sand. They feel greasy to the touch because 
they ate covered with myriads of minute glands. The exudation 
from the glands entraps small insects which alight on the leaf sut- 
face, and these helplessly entangled creatures are held closely by the 
intolled margins of the leaf blade, to be digested and assimilated as 
food. The butterworts ate all terrestrial plants, but they belong to 
the same family as the bladderworts, many of which ate aquatic. 
This species of butterwort is common in Florida and adjoining 
States, but appears to be unable to withstand cold weather. It has 
not migrated farther north than southern North Carolina. Curiously 
enough one of its close relatives is intolerant of warm climates, 
and though occurring through much of Canada, has not reached 
farther south than central New York. 
The specimen sketched was brought into flower in the green- 
houses of the United States Department of Agticulture in Wash- 
ington, from specimens obtained in Florida. 
PLATE 235 
