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.

From Washington Post

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.

From Newsweek

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.

From Project Gutenberg

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

From Project Gutenberg

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 Project Gutenberg