''Pinguicula laxifolia'' 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

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is a state in the northeast region of Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entiti ...

, the only 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 ...

'' Orchidioides''. Its pendulous leaves are unusual in the genus, which features mostly species with stiff or succulent leaves.

Morphology

''Pinguicula laxifolia'' is a perennial rosetted herb bearing pendulous to semi-erect elliptic or oblanceolate long leaves."Luhrs, H.; ''New additions to the genus Pinguicula (Lentibulariaceae) of Mexico'' Phytologia, 1995, vol. 79 (2), pages 114 - 122 ( vailable in http://epbb.club.fr/Publications/P_stolonifera_P_laxifolia.pdf pdf These 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. ''P. laxifolia'' forms Winter rosettes of succulent, non-carnivorous leaves to conserve energy through the cool, dry seasons, and as a means of self-propagation. The flowers are pink to pale violet, with a white throat and darker violet markings. They are thought to appear from February through March.

Distribution and habitat

''Pinguicula laxifolia'' is known only from its remote type location in the "El Cielo" cloudforest bioreserve in

, Mexico. Here it grows on well-shaded vertical rock walls from 6300 to 6800 ft. in altitude. Although it appears to have an extremely restricted distribution, little is yet known about this species.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2095668 Carnivorous plants of North America laxifolia Endemic flora of Mexico Flora of Tamaulipas Plants described in 1995