''Pinguicula gypsicola'' is an insectivorous plant of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

Pinguicula ''Pinguicula'', commonly known as the butterworts, is a genus of carnivorous flowering plants in the family Lentibulariaceae. They use sticky, glandular leaves to lure, trap, and digest insects in order to supplement the poor mineral nutrition ...

'' native to the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi, a heterophyllous member of the

section Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...

'' Orcheosanthus''. It grows in

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywal ...

soils and forms stemless rosettes of upright, narrow leaves.

Morphology

''Pinguicula gypsicola'' is a perennial rosetted herb. It is heterophyllous, bearing upright, narrow carnivorous leaves with backward bending margins in the summer, and a tight rosette of small, hairy, non-carnivorous leaves in the winter. As is typical for ''

'', the carnivorous leaves are densely covered with stalked mucilaginous and sessile digestive glands, which serve to trap and digest

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

prey and absorb the resulting nutrient mixture to supplement their nitrate-low environment. The carnivorous leaves of this species are bright green to reddish and grow up to 6.5 cm. long. The 2 cm

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are purple and are born singly on 9 cm

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

s. They bloom when the start of summer rains triggers summer growth in June or July.

Distribution and habitat

''Pinguicula gypsicola'' is known only from a few areas near its type location west of the city of San Luis Potosí. It grows in

slopes accompanied by other

xerophytic A xerophyte (from Greek ξηρός ''xeros'' 'dry' + φυτόν ''phuton'' 'plant') is a species of plant that has adaptations to survive in an environment with little liquid water, such as a desert such as the Sahara or places in the Alps or t ...

vegetation such as

Cactaceae A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gree ...

, ''

Agave ''Agave'' (; ; ) is a genus of monocots native to the hot and arid regions of the Americas and the Caribbean, although some ''Agave'' species are also native to tropical areas of North America, such as Mexico. The genus is primarily known for ...

stricta'', '' A. striata'', ''

Selaginella ''Selaginella'' is the sole genus of vascular plants in the family Selaginellaceae, the spikemosses or lesser clubmosses. This family is distinguished from Lycopodiaceae (the clubmosses) by having scale-leaves bearing a ligule and by having ...

cuspidata'', '' Dasylirion longissimum'', ''

Dodonaea viscosa ''Dodonaea viscosa'', also known as the broadleaf hopbush, is a species of flowering plant in the '' Dodonaea'' (hopbush) genus that has a cosmopolitan distribution in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions of Africa, the Americas, sout ...

'' and '' Hechtia glomerata''.Casper SJ (1966). ''Monographie der Gattung Pinguicula L. (Heft 127/128, Vol 31). Stuttgart: Bibliotheca Botanica.

Botanical history

''Pinguicula gypsicola'' was first described in 1911 by

Townshend Stith Brandegee Townshend Stith Brandegee (February 16, 1843 – April 7, 1925) was an American botanist. He was an authority on the flora of Baja California and the Channel Islands of California. Early life Brandegee was born on February 16, 1843, in Berlin, C ...

(1843-1925), a botanist from California.

References

External links

Description & photos: World of Pinguicula

International Carnivorous Plant Society
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1719348 gypsicola Carnivorous plants of North America Endemic flora of Mexico Flora of San Luis Potosí Plants described in 1911 Taxa named by Townshend Stith Brandegee