Pinguicula vulgaris L.

Pinguicula vulgaris is a small carnivorous perennial of the cold, calcareous bogs and wet rocky ledges of the northern hemisphere — its circumboreal range stretches from northern Europe and Siberia across Subarctic America to the northern United States. It forms a flat, ground-hugging rosette of pale yellow-green leaves, three to six centimetres long, whose upper surface is coated in microscopic sticky glands that trap small insects and digest them on the leaf. In late spring and early summer it sends up slender stalks carrying a single violet-purple flower with a long backward spur. Note: this is a cold-temperate species that requires a near-freezing winter dormancy — it forms a tight resting bud called a hibernaculum each autumn — and is not suited to a warm closed terrarium. It does best in a cool, open bog-style setup with bright light, alkaline soil, and standing water year-round.