butterwort

American  

[buht-er-wurt, -wawrt] / ˈbʌt ərˌwɜrt, -ˌwɔrt /

noun

1. any small, carnivorous plant of the genus Pinguicula, having leaves that secrete a viscid substance in which small insects are caught.

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butterwort British  

/ ˈbʌtəˌwɜːt /

noun

1. a plant of the genus Pinguicula , esp P. vulgaris , that grows in wet places and has violet-blue spurred flowers and fleshy greasy glandular leaves on which insects are trapped and digested: family Lentibulariaceae

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Etymology

Origin of butterwort

First recorded in 1590–1600; butter + wort ²

Example Sentences

The common butterwort is one of several plants which exude a sticky substance so that the leaves act like flypaper.

From Time Magazine Archive

By crossing a butterwort with a Venus's-flytrap, Seymour creates a new plant type, which he calls Audrey Jr. and which, it happens, feeds on human blood.

From Time Magazine Archive

Pinguicula, or butterwort, is the representative of this family upon land.

From Darwiniana; Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism by Gray, Asa

Among those more particularly abundant was the pretty violet-purple flower of the butterwort, each circle of pale-yellow leaves, with the stalk rising from the centre crowned with its peculiar bloom.

From Due North or Glimpses of Scandinavia and Russia by Ballou, Maturin Murray

He could watch the butterwort curving round the edges of its wan green foliage upon the captured limbs of fly or aphis.

From Charles Darwin by Allen, Grant