Butterwort

Did you know

• Butterwort leaves feel like greased butter to the touch—they're coated in sticky droplets that look like dew but are actually a deadly trap for tiny gnats and mosquitoes.
• The yellowish-green leaves quietly digest hundreds of insects per growing season—each leaf rolls its edges inward over its catch, forming a 'plate' to digest the meal.
• Sami and Scandinavian peoples discovered that pouring fresh milk through butterwort leaves caused it to ferment overnight into 'tätmjölk,' a thick yogurt-like drink, thanks to the plant's bacterial-friendly enzymes.
• Despite the carnivorous trickery in the leaves, butterwort flowers are pure violet beauty—they look like miniature violets on slender wiry stems, raising the bloom safely above the sticky leaves.
• Butterworts grow in bogs, fens, and wet limestone cliffs from the Arctic to the Alps—all 80+ species are sticky-leaved carnivores, but each has wildly different flower colors.

Color meanings

Uses

• Bog gardens
• Carnivorous collections
• Specimen plant
• Conservation