Plant of the day is: Lindera benzoin or Northern spicebush

Plant of the day is: Lindera benzoin or Northern spicebush

Time to bring a little sunshine into these darker days.  Lindera has long been a bit of a favorite of mine, and a wonderful harbinger of Spring.  It's a distinctive plant, once you get an eye for it, and can often grow in large swaths of land, making for a gorgeous display of flowers, berries, and some Fall color.  As a Missouri native, I've enjoyed its company many a time.

Lindera benzoin by R. A. Nonenmacher

CC BY-SA 4.0

General stuff: Typically found in lower elevations and/or near streams.  The higher you climb in elevation, the less likely you'll be to find.  During a lovely hike at LaBarque Creek Conservation Area last Friday, these were flowering in full swing.  While the flowers can be on the smaller side, in large groupings, they add a lovely yellow tint that can be seen for dozens of feet.  It's a plant that sees usage in some gardens, but probably not enough, easily a plant of merit that deserves plenty of attention.

Lindera benzoin (northern spicebush) in fruit by Tom Potterfield

CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Taxonomy, etc.:  A member of the Lauraceae family, with 45 genera and about 2,850 species.  Worth noting that they are dioecious, meaning they have male flowers and female flowers on separate plants.  The genus is named after Johann Linder, a Swedish botanist and physician.  I wasn't able to find all that much on Linder doing some quick searching, curious what stories are to be found.  The specific epithet (it's "last" name) comes from the Arabic for aromatic gum.  It is also shares a family with Sassafras, another Missouri native you can typically find at slightly higher elevations.  Most of the family is evergreen, so both Sassafras, and Lindera are exceptions. The description of this plant is well documented so I won't go into much detail, as you can see form the photos, clusters of yellow flowers and red berries later in the season are good giveaways.  I find I don't typically find single plants of these often, more often in clusters.  If you see a plant with alternate leaves, and red berries, crush up the leaves/stems a bit and see if it smell a bit citrusy and nice.  Absolutely love that smell. 

Description/Culture: As you can see in the below photograph, it is a loosely shaped small tree/shrub.  Typically growing somewhere between 2 to 4 meters in height and spread.  In nature, where it is found under the canopy of oak/hickory forests and open woodlands at lower elevations, it typically is around the 2 to 3 meter size.  Like many plants, best flowering and fall color is achieved in full sun. Much like our native dogwoods and service berries, they will often require additional moisture if sited in full sun.  They are very tolerant of wet soils and although I haven't tried it, I think plantings near Cephalanthus occidentalis in wetter spots of a landscape would be a wonderful combination.  Germination data is quite contradictory, with some sites calling for warm stratification before cold (double dormancy) and some calling for merely cold stratification.  If I had a bunch of seeds I'd love to do a few trials and settle it once and for all.  I did find a few sites calling for 30 days warm stratification before 90 days cold.   If I were to attempt to germinate these, that is what I would try first. In climates where this is native, alternatively you could try sowing these outside with some protection from critters.  A few sources indicate that the seed should not be dried out or it looses viability, the Kew Seed Information Database lists it as Uncertain, so recalcitrance IS a possibility.  I have grown a few of these from seeds, they are fairly easy and resilient, they do not particularly like our high pH tap water here in STL (up to 9 at times).  Rainwater or RO water is preferred if growing in cultivation.

Lindera benzoin photo credit: David Stang

CC BY-SA 4.0

Bonus!:  You didn't think I'd forget the butterflies did you!?  They are a host plant for the caterpillars of the spicebush swallowtail butterfly.  My call to action to you all is simple, plant one!  Both the butterflies AND this plant are worthy of appreciation and you've got to have one to get the other.  Cultivate a little bit of natural beauty in your own garden!

Spicebush Swallowtail photo credit: Katja Schulz

CC BY 2.0

Plant of the day is: Ornithogalum umbellatum or Star-of-Bethlehem

Plant of the day is: Ornithogalum umbellatum or Star-of-Bethlehem

Trying to make more than a few positives out of a month of isolation.  The last few years I've certainly fallen into some traps of not being attentive enough in my enthusiasm and interest in learning about plants.  I suppose it's always a danger in life to become too complacent and comfortable in where you are and the knowledge you have.  It'll be a long, weird haul for me not being able to see my seedlings come up and struggle to keep them alive in the rough conditions of Saint Louis, but I'm going to spend some much needed time reconnecting with one of the true sources of peace I've ever found.  Let's talk about some plants.  In the past I've been a bit more structured with these write-ups.   In the interest of fun, and feeling like "playing around" a little bit, the first section of these will be a bit of fun trivia/lightheartedness and the subsequent sections (as I feel up to it) will be more taxonomic and culture based.  

Ornithogalum umbellatum close-up2 photo credit: Meneerke bloem

CC BY-SA 3.0

General stuff:  It can be difficult at times to remember that it's not the plant you're annoyed with, but the place.  The flowers are actually quite beautiful, especially in mass, which is fairly easy to accomplish.  See here for the USDA spread of the species, quite far flung.  Alabama considers it a Class C Noxious Weed, I just consider it a bit of a pain.  Unfortunately, large populations of these exist around my yard, so large populations pop up every year.  I'm hoping I can whittle them down the hard way by hand weeding, but they are tenacious buggers.  Usually listed as a naturalizer and not necessarily a noxious weed, as they often struggle to overtake an area of richer biodiversity, often going for empty/waste places.  

They are bulbous, and tend to really resist being pulled up without leaving at least a bulb or two behind.  It's a well suited adaptation for grazing/human control.  I've been working on an a bed almost entirely full of these and for every 20 I get I'm sure I leave a few behind.  Thankfully I've got the time this Spring to wrangle them all up.  They do have a decent smell to them and will often pop up in your lawn as well.  Thankfully, regular mowing at a decent height should keep them from flowering.  You do NOT want to let these go to flower, or you'll be in my position, fighting off a hoard of them.  Best way to dig em is to try and get your soil knife/trowel UNDER where the bulbs will be at an angle and then heave them out.  

Sunny day photo credit: Michael Goodyear

CC BY-SA 4.0

Taxonomy, etc.:  It is in the Asparagus family, Asparagaceae, which is a rather large family and at times a bit bonkers in terms of how many a genera are managed and shifted around.  Muscari, Nothoscordum, Scilla, Albuca, Nolina, Pseudogaltonia, Triteleia, Lachenalia, Yucca, Massonia, and one of my favorites, Massonia, are all members I've grown in the last few years.  I'll likely be doing a write-up on Massonia soon.  The species has been depicted by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and there is some folklore behind it suggesting it grew from fragments of the star of Bethlehem.  The genus Ornithogalum was adopted by Linnaeus in the 18th century but the name dates back to at least the second century AD.  It translates from Greek as "bird's milk", the reasons for why kind of baffle me so I'll let you look into that if you're curious.  There are roughly 180 species and I imagine telling some of them apart is a laborious and altogether unpleasant task.  They are from Mediterranean areas including Africa and Madagascar and as far east as Afghanistan.   Back to the confuscated nature of the family, just for a chuckle, Wiki comments that "this very large family was dismembered towards the end of the 20th century".  Personally, I think they're still hacking off limbs, it's quite the circus.  

Bulb with bulbil photo credit: Michael Goodyear

CC BY-SA 4.0

Description/Culture: You can get a pretty good idea from the photos, can be confused with Nothoscordum bivalve (a native actually).  They are quite similar, I think the easiest way to tell the difference is to just look at some photos.  Let me google that for you:

Ornithogalum umbellatum photos

Nothoscordum bivalve photos 

Anyways, O. umbellatum loves wet Springs but is quite tolerant of drought in the summer.  It does very well here.  It will grow wherever you give it the opportunity to, either by seed or vegetative reproduction as offsets of the initial bulb.  Lots of other information out there so I won't get into it too deep for this one.  It was brought over as an ornamental and has escaped to do its own thing (slightly jealous at the moment).

Etc.:  Reports on it being edible, but only after cooking.  Looks to have concentrations of alkaloids which are typically disruptive to heart function.  I have eaten Triteleia laxa before, another member of the family, and found them to be quite delicious and similar in taste to potatoes.  Apparently Native Americans ate Triteleia so I figured I'd give it a shot.  I'll have to do a fair bit more research before thinking about nibbling on them, and would advise you do the same before considering eating them.

Plant of the day is: Parolinia sp. or "the ladies of"

Plant of the day is: Parolinia sp. or "the ladies of"

    Have to make use of a bit of summer free time with something fun and worth sharing!  I've been very lucky to grow a significant amount of material from the Canary islands this last year.  An important part of the world to focus on due to the high endemism and several IUCN listed plants in various degrees of endangerment.  

    Taking a slight detour to describe an entire genus because I've also been lucky enough to receive seed and have very good germination from 5 of the 6 total species in the genus.  I should probably start digging into how to differentiate them, with all of them growing together in the same spot eh? Sadly I'm missing P. intermedia, a shame. "I would've liked to have had the set"

My seedlings about 1.5 months after sowing.  Photo Credit: Justin Lee

(CC BY-NC 4.0)

Taxonomy, etc.:  Lets start with the common name first.  Since I'm doing multiple ones I thought I might just have to leave that blank.  Turns out there is a bit of a system to their common names.  I'll put the translations of a few species below.

Parolinia ornata: "dama de Gran Canaria" - lady of Gran Canaria

Parolinia platypetala: "dama de Guayadeque" - lady of Guayadeque

Parolina glabriuscula: "dama de Bandama" - lady of Bandama

Parolinia filifolia: "dama fina" - fine lady

Parolinia intermedia: "dama de Tenerife" - lady of Tenerife

The genus was first described in 1840 by Philip Barker-Webb, an English botanist born into a wealthy family.  He later collected plants in Italy, Spain, and Portugal and was the first to collect in the Tetuan Mountains of Morocco.  He also spent quite a bit of time at the Canary Islands.  He spent about 20 years compiling the L'Histoire Naturelle des Iles Canaries. His herbarium is now found at the Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze in Florence, Italy.  Adding that stop to my list!  

Just going to dip into more taxonomy/morphology briefly.  It is a member of the large Brassicaceae family and is distinguished by its fruits which are siliques.  What is that you (and I) ask?  Let me Wiki that for us.  Apparently the requirement is that the fruit has to be more than three times the width, otherwise it is a silicle.  Now we know.  Also, these siliques have a pair of horns on them, pretty rad.  Leaves are whole and very greyish/silvery.  Honestly, even at the mature stages of their growth (which happens in under about 4-5 months in cultivation by the way) they are very difficult to tell apart.  

For more detail into identification of individual species you'll need to check out the floradecanaris website.  They are about the only one that writes much about them online. 

http://www.floradecanarias.com/parolinia.html

                              

Parolinia ornata (Jardín Botánico Canario Viera y Clavijo)

Photo Credit: James Steakley (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Culture:  I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on morphology because you can get a pretty clear idea from the photo above.  I'll try to update with a photo of my larger plants now.  They are around 60cm in height now.  Really coming along.  They germinate fairly easily, I did germinate them in a very well drained mix on mist.  Roots are VERY fine and fragile.  I was VERY careful in transplanting them.  Root development is very strongly down oriented and a deep container is beneficial.  WELL DRAINED and don't over water.  They will, thankfully, visibly show wilt when dry and then bounce back readily when watered.  Nutrient requirements are very low, I fertilize very little, once every 2 weeks with liquid fertilizer.  A low analysis slow release fertilizer would likely work well.  Full sun (obviously!  just look at those grey leaves).  No major pest problems that I've noted, even when situated around aphids and mites.  All in all a great and easy plant to grow.  They seem to have shut down growth in our 35C+ summers here in Saint Louis but they still look visibly healthy.  

Parolinia glabriuscula (showing "horned" fruit)

Photo Credit: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The real take away from culture here is that they are relatively easy to grow, QUITE endangered, and we should be growing them across the world to guard genetics.  This is a great candidate plant to represent one of the end goals of my work.

Hope you're all enjoying the summer!  See you soon (I hope!).

Plant of the day is Helianthus winteri or Winter's sunflower

Plant of the day is Helianthus winteri or Winter's sunflower

Pictured: Helianthus giganteus

I'm back!  Good to be back.  Semester is over, grades are in, and now to spend some of that extra time putting it back into plants.

Why the image of Helianthus giganteus when we're talking about H. winteri?  Well, it seems every cool person in California like to copyright all the images of the plant and not commons share anything.  So here is a link for the CalPhotos gallery.  Some fantastic shots and a lot of detail on this. 

 Taxonomy, etc:  I'm not going to spend a WHOLE lot of time here, it is an Asteraceae so it's in a huge family.  The Helianthus genus is about 70 species and also contains the famous Jerusalem artichoke or H. tuberosus ...which has nothing to do with being an artichoke.  Your standard domesticated sunflower is also H. annuus.  There are a few endangered species, H. verticillatus and H. winteri being a couple of them.  Definitely worthy of noting that this species was just recently described in 2013!  New plants everywhere to find!  If you'd like to see the full details on the description and locality see the link below.  Easier than me explaining.  It is very well done actually, a very nice paper. The paper also peaks some interest for use in hybridization due to several desirable traits in seed oil content and may have more lignins than cultivated sunflowers.  Cool stuff.

http://www.sunflowernsa.com/uploads/research/1237/marek.et.al_exciting.species_paper_2014.pdf

Description:  One trait I will definitely be looking for as my young plants get larger is the seeping of resin that occurs on the stems.  Cross sections of the stems also don't have similar pith formation to the annual species H. argophyllus.  The stem is quite woody really and can reach up to 2in or 6cm wide.  They can get quite tall as well, I came across a claim of 4m!  I cannot easily find a botanical description (which is annoying).  From what I can tell..stems and leaf veins are slightly tomentose (fuzzy).  Fairly sharp leaf margins with a deltoid shaped leaf.  Honestly, if you're in a small chunk of Fresno around some really steep hills and you see some giant woody sunflowers with resin on their stems...probably going to be H. winteri.   Ohh, it also flowers year round, which is pretty cool.  The downside to this, however, is that the first years growth is almost indistinguishable from H. annus.  

Check out some amazing stained slides of stems from http://www.brookmoyers.com/research.html

Habitat/Culture:  See the link below for an actual map and an idea for just how small an area this inhabits.  The area of occupancy looks like a Tetris chunk...I miss Tetris.  It is found adjacent to highway 180 east of Fresno.  It grows in an area that only receives about 11 inches of rainfall annually and it grows on some pretty brutally steep hillside.  It's a tough plant to be sure.  I'm probably way over-pampering mine.  Threats to its habitat include grazing, agriculture, and road maintenance.  

Propagation:  I'm growing this fairly easily from seed in tall (6 inch) narrow pots to promote taproot development.  I sowed them in a 50/50 blend of a barky perennial mix and haydite (for drainage), VERY lightly covered with vermiculite to hold some moisture around the seeds and sowed on a mist bench with bottom heat with day temps about 75 and night temps 65.  Have to record my germination yet but I would estimate somewhere around 20% (sunflowers can be low...but it could be a problem with seed storage or my method as well).

Plant of the day is: Puya berteroniana or turquoise puya

Plant of the day is: Puya berteroniana or turquoise puya

    Not that I don't approach every seed I sow with excitement, but every once in awhile, I come across a packet of seeds that I REALLY hope germinates.  This is a story of that packet today.

Blue flower of Puya berteroniana. Photo Credit: Rod Waddington

(CC BY-SA 2.0)

Well then, do I have your attention?  How about that color!?  You just don't see that kind of color that often in nature, it's a treat.  The contrast of the bright orange pollen is really something.  It looks even better amassed on the inflorescence ...but more of that to come. 

Taxonomy, etc.:  We're back on another monocot.  So you think pineapple and you'd probably think more tropical.  Most bromeliads are tropical and found in the Americas, but this particular genus, Puya, can grow in some rather hostile places.  While it is still a Bromeliaceae, it is more at home with cacti than palms, as you can see in the very bottom photo.  The name Puya is derived from the Mapuche Indian word for point, which is easy to sympathize with when working with these plants.  Gloves are non-optional.  There are around 230 accepted species of Puya, so there is some nice diversity in the genus.  Puya is one of the 51 genera in the Bromeliaceae much like the pineapple Ananas comosus and all those awesome air plants we all like so much, the Tillandsia.  Puya is the type genus for the Puoideae subfamily.  The classification of the family has seen a lot of attention based on chloroplast DNA analysis.  Other notable genera in the family include Fosterella, Dyckia, Vriesea, and Guzmania.  Some decent house plants in that lot.  That doesn't mean the rest aren't equally amazing, I just don't know as much about them.  Oh.  Wittrockia is pretty awesome.  It rocks.

Genus is credited to Juan Ignacio Molina, which I think is a great name.  Actually from Chile himself, he wrote Saggio sulla Storia Naturale del Chili, one of the first accounts of the natural history of the country.  He also has a lizard named after him.  Nice.

Puya berteroniana bromeliaceae Photo Credit: Domaine du Rayol, le Jardin des Méditerranées

(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Description:  Forms large mounding rosettes of silver-grey leaves that are well armed with inward pointing spines that trap anything that falls into the rosette.  They are pretty brutal.  They are one species considered protocarnivorous, which is a fancy way of saying that they may trap and kill things but can't digest them directly, essentially just taking advantage of downward moving organic matter through the process of decay.  Neat. The clumped rosettes can be over 1.5m tall by the way and the leaves are about a meter in length, pretty impressive.  The flowers are a striking blue, which is a bit unusual as it selective for birds, as reds tend to attract other insects.  In a pretty nifty morphological co-evolutionary feat, the flower stalks have lateral branches with flowers on the lower parts but ending in a stiff spur which is used as a perch for birds.  Awww, nature is cute...when it's not being really diabolical.  The inflorescence can be 2 to 4m tall, which is absurd and truly something to behold.  These are what is called a monocarpic perennial, meaning they live for more than two years (can be several) and when they finally reach maturity, flower, and set seed, they die. This particular species takes bout 6-8 years to reach maturity, well worth the wait though. 

Habitat/Culture:  Hailing from the coastal mountains of Chile, it has adapted to live in a fairly hostile environment.  You can see just how barren and dry its home is in the photo below.  Because of its altitude it is actually fairly cold hardy, with reports of being hardy down to 15F in more xeric soils.  I'd feel pretty comfortable with 22-25F degrees in a well drained but I doubt I'd feel comfortable pushing it any further than that.  Not particularly difficult to germinate and grow if higher humidity in well drained soils is maintained throughout young growth.  I think the danger with growing dry loving bromeliads and even cacti from seed is exposing them to harsh conditions too quickly.  They can actually take a fair bit of water, and like the humidity, as long as the media is VERY well drained.  I've got some very nice sized Puya coerulea var. monteroana that I've grown from seed this year and they're doing swimmingly in clay pots with lots of big chunk perlite, peat, and charcoal.  Growing xeric plants is a rewarding lesson in managing watering, one I'm still learning.  

Propagation:  Will be trying these similar to my other Puya, essentially mimicking well established practices for cacti seed sowing and using well drained but peaty mixes that have been well sterilized.  I actually use microwave safe deli/takeout containers and sterilize media with boiling water/microwave, sow seeds on surface, cover with good seal lid (allowing light in), place in greenhouse, and wait, impatiently at times. 

Puya berteroniana, Paihuano, region de Coquimbo Photo Credit: Pato Novoa

(CC BY 2.0)

Plant of the day is: Dracaena draco or dragon blood tree

Plant of the day is: Dracaena draco or dragon blood tree

IUCN: Vulnerable

Dracaena draco by brewbooks (CC BY-SA 2.0)

As you can see, much like Dumbledore, this plants got style.  Hopefully I can keep an interested coworker from stabbing into it and investigating its common namesake.  I've been meaning to write about this one for some time and it might as well be today.  Probably one of my most closely watched seedlings at the moment, very excited to see my two inch start grow into one of these majestic "trees".

Taxonomy, etc.: As good of a point as any to explain why tree is in quotation marks above.  While the dragon blood tree does eventually grow into something resembling a tree, it is not really a tree in the traditional sense.  Much like other palms, it is a monocot and does not form wood in the usual way with secondary growth from the cork cambium and vascular cambium (lateral meristems).  See a quick video on secondary growth here!  Instead of forming bark from a cork cambium, these clever plants essentially harden their outer layers with various sclerified or hardened cells left over from the bases of previously shed fronds.  The drawback to this is that treelike monocots cannot make use of compartmentalization to protect wounds against pests like a real tree can.    

You wouldn't think of this as an asparagus but it is in the Asparagaceae family, definitely an odd cousin.  Dracaena is derived from ancient Greek drakaina or female dragon.  There are about 120 species, the majority of which are native to Africa.  Sansevieria is actually a very closely related genus.  I did not know that.  If you've ever seen "lucky bamboo" you'll notice a close relative of D. draco here.  D. braunii is frequently sold as "lucky bamboo" despite uhhh, not being bamboo.  In a different life I had some for awhile until I killed it.  If you like the genus Dracaena you can thank Linnaeus for making this specific epithet cooler.  D. draco used to be Asparagus draco.  Lame.

Dracaena draco by Esculapio (CC BY-SA 3.0)

El Drago Milenario (the thousand-year-old dragon) growing at Icod de los Vinos in Northwest Tenerife.  It is estimated to be about 250 to 365 years old and the largest specimen alive.

Description: One of the tree Dracaena, grows to a width of up to 10m with a similar height in culture.  It can get quite a bit taller in its native environment over a great deal of time.  Typically a little taller than wide at maturity but has a bit of a varied growth habit throughout its life.  It grows as a single stem for the first 10-15 years of its life and then begins to flower and form more lateral stems.  The base is supported by aerial roots that emerge from the base of the lower stems and closely hug the central stem, forming a mass of wood-like roots.  Leaves are about .7m long and 3.8 cm in width and blue-green in color.  The bark, when cut or bruised releases a red resin that looks similar to blood and has been used for a variety of purposes including wood staining, medicine, and embalming the dead.

An old dragon tree (Dracaena draco) with a gash in its stem

by Wellcome Images (CC BY 4.0)

Looks crazy right?  It was actually a thing.  The Guanches hollowed out the trunk into a little hobbit-like sanctuary which Humboldt saw when he visited.  Sadly destroyed by a storm in 1868 :(.

Habitat/culture:  Native to the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Madeira, and western Morocco.  Near extirpated in Madeira and Porto Santo.  Only a few hundred left in the Canaries.  There is a nice remote pocket of them in North Africa that has several thousand, so ...that is nice, though they are likely a variant.  Would be sad to lose the genetics of the rest forever.  It is tolerant of temperatures around 20-25 F and is very heat and drought tolerant.  I'll be transferring my seedling to a very well drained media and root promoting pot very soon.  Dracaena, in general, tend to be pretty forgiving in terms of nutrition as well, basically, be a little mean to them and withhold.  Slow release fertilizers like Osmocote are nice.  

Propagation:  Keep in mind that the seeds are recalcitrant (die if they dry out).  Can be stored for a few months if kept moist.  I like to soak my seeds before sowing, typically overnight, to jump start imbibition.  For these, I put them in a 50/50 potting soil/perlite mix in a 4" tall pot and covered with humidity dome with bottom heat 80F+ (lot of the palms like it toasty to germ) just make sure you watch your water, they can never dry out.

Plant of the day is: Pinguicula primuliflora or primrose butterwort

Plant of the day is: Pinguicula primuliflora or primrose butterwort

Another southeastern species.  Somebody keeps bringing all these plants in from that region...hmmmm.  Said person piqued my interest discussing its dormancy today, so here we are.  One of the butterworts, a really neat group of plants I have been remiss to address.  

Pinguicula primuliflora (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) photo by dogtooth77

Taxonomy etc.:  A member of the bladderwort family actually.  Lentibulariaceae ...really rolls off the tongue right?  Say that one five times fast.  A fairly small family in terms of genera with only Pinguicula, Genlisea (corkscrew plants) and Utricularia (the bladderworts), and Isoloba.  The bladderworts are well worth a look and perhaps soon they'll have their time to shine as well, they're quite fascinating in their underwater capture methods.  From a genetic standpoint, members of this family originally evolved the ability to secrete proteinase mucilage as a deterrent to insect predation and then later further evolved to adsorb nutrients from captured prey.  The family contains about 312 accepted species.  The Pinguicula genus contains about 73 accepted species.  For a very nice description of family characteristics visit Tropical Biodiversity.  One fun fact is that it is the most species rich family of carnivorous plants.  Worth noting that there are both tropical and temperate members in the genus so they adapt to those changes quite differently.  Also...not all of them are carnivorous P. cyclosecta for example.  

Pinguicula primuliflora at the University of Washington greenhouse collections (CC BY-SA 4.0) photo by Ryan Kitko

Description: Herbaceous perennial.  Leaf margins are entire, forming a rosette, I'm saying fairly oblong and rounded at the tip and about 6-9cm long.  Flowers are kind of a light purple to pink.  When germinating and establishing there is a single ephemeral root that then disappears to be replaced by adventitious roots.  Neat.  The roots mainly just absorb water and help anchor the plant.  They get their nutrients through their sticky leaves that trap small gnats and insects.  Yum.  The leaves are covered in tiny hairs that secrete said mucilagenous (I like that word...) liquid.  Worth noting that the scapes also have hairs and can trap insects, why waste a meal on a flower??  They also form new plantlets from the tips of their leaves...cooooool.  I wanna see that.  Very detailed description here.  I do not believe this species grows different leaves in the winter... :(.  Maybe we'll get a hold of some that do though.

Pinguicula vulgaris Illustration (Public Domain)

Distribution/Culture:  Typically found on the extreme southern coast areas starting in Louisiana stretching through the panhandle.  While most Pinguicula prefer very moist soil, these prefer it VERY wet, near to growing in water even.  In terms of soil, broadly, they prefer similar soils to most carnivorous plants: acidic and poor.  Combinations of peat, sphagnum, and sand should be included in a growing mix.  High light exposure is kind of their thing too.  I'm unsure if you can use similar methods to Drosera to feed them in lieu of insects.  Finely ground betabites fish food is probably an option though...I'd wager.  They do require a dormancy in the winter and need to be kept fairly cool (above freezing) for several months.