butterwort

[buht-er-wurt, -wawrt]

noun

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

butterwort

/ 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of butterwort¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; butter + wort ²

Example Sentences

The greenhouse benches are full of other jewels, including butterworts and sundews.

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And another species, called a butterwort, has sticky leaves that, besides ensnaring unsuspecting insect visitors, also collects and digests pollen, and uses this flower power to increase it’s own blossom production.

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It is said that there are about a hundred kinds of flesh-eating plants all the world over, and of these, three—the sundew, butterwort, and bladderwort—grow in this country.

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

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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.

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