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Plant Profile

Violet-flowered Butterwort (Pinguicula ionantha)

Pinguicula ionantha flower Photo Credit: Cindy Campbell

Global Rank: G2 - Imperiled
Legal Status: Federally Threatened
Family: Lentibulariaceae
State: FL
Nature Serve ID: 154869
Lifeform: Forb/herb
Categories of Interest: Carnivorous Plants
Date Inducted in National Collection:

Description:

P. ionantha (Lentibulariaceae) was not described as a distinct species until 1961. It is a violet-flowered, carnivorous bladderwort. The leaves are oblong, fleshy and rounded at the tip and form a rosette approximately 15 cm in diameter. There are short glandular hairs on the upper leaf surfaces that capture insects. The flower is pale violet to white with a deep violet throat and dark veins, is 2 cm in diameter, and occurs on a leafless stalk (USFWS 1992). P. ionantha is considered a warm-temperate ping as it does not form winter resting buds. Considered a short-lived perennial, many die after a couple of years. While butterwort is their common name, some propagators refer to them as pings (D'Amato 1998).

Where is Violet-flowered Butterwort (Pinguicula ionantha) located in the wild?

Habitat:

Typically, P. ionantha is found in seepage slopes, bogs, transition zones between flatwoods and cypress stringers, roadside ditches, and depressions in wet pine flatwoods and wet prairies. It is often in standing water (FNAI 2000).

Distribution:

This endemic species is found in the Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gulf, Liberty and Wakulla counties in the Florida Panhandle (USFWS 2009).

States & Provinces:

Violet-flowered Butterwort can be found in Florida

Which CPC Partners conserve Violet-flowered Butterwort (Pinguicula ionantha)?

Bok Tower Gardens

Not Sponsored

Conservation Actions

Assigned 06/09/17

CPC's Plant Sponsorship Program provides long term stewardship of rare plants in our National Collection. We are so grateful for all our donors who have made the Plant Sponsorship Program so successful. We are in the process of acknowledging all our wonderful plant sponsorship donors on our website. This is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

Conservation Actions

Tina Stanley

05/11/2023

According to a March 2023 extract of the Florida Plant Rescue Database, Bok Tower Gardens holds 4 accessions of Pinguicula ionantha totalling approximately 7306 seeds.

10/17/2020

Florida's Statewide Endangered and Threatened Plant Conservation Program requested grant money from both federal funds and a matched amount from the University of Illinois to support a project to survey, monitor, and assess reproduction of P. ionantha at Tate's Hell State Forest and St. Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve to occur from 2014-2015. This funding supported multiple studies, including an analysis of changes habitat structure and their effect on reproduction and prey capture among P. ionantha individuals in Primer 2016, as well as genetic diversity studies described in Zaya et. al. 2017.

10/17/2020

10/17/2020

10/17/2020

The Bok Tower Gardens has performed seed germination and transplantation in an effort to further research on the carnivorous herb.

10/17/2020

According to life table response experiments (LTRE) performed by Kesler et. al. 2008, it was found that significantly shortening prescribed fire events produced an increase in population growth rates of P. ionantha. After an analysis of mark-recapture models, researchers estimated probabilities of survival for individuals among 12 populations.

Clarice Mendoza

10/26/2017

Clarice Mendoza

10/26/2017

Clarice Mendoza

10/26/2017

The species' habitat is declining in extent and quality due to logging, drainage alteration, and lack of fire (NatureServe 2014).

Nature Serve Biotics

05/02/2017

As of 2014, this taxon is known from about 60 occurrences in the central Florida panhandle counties, with most sites having few individuals.

Cindy Campbell

01/01/2010

Lack of fire during the growing season is detrimental to much of the pineland and savannah flora associated with this species (Robbins and Myers: Platt et al. 1988). Because P. ionantha does not tolerate shade, canopy closure in pine plantations occurs as a result.

Cindy Campbell

01/01/2010

Over half of the 65 known populations are on the Apalachicola National Forest. A 5-year status review will be completed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2008-2009.

Cindy Campbell

01/01/2010

The Bok Tower Gardens has performed seed germination and transplantation in an effort to further research on the carnivorous herb.

Cindy Campbell

01/01/2010

The Apalachicola National Forest is under fire management. St. Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve has made the application of frequent, preferably growing season, fire to wet savanna areas where P. ionantha occurs. Tates Hell State Forest has increased their application of prescribed fire on a 3 to 4 year cycle. No known management actions have been done in part by private land owners.

Cindy Campbell

01/01/2010

Actions needed include determination of the genetic variability among and within P. ionantha populations; demographic studies to determine population stability, increase, and decline; develop an understanding of habitat management requirements and management guidelines, especially the effects of differing fire frequencies and timing of application and burning with corresponding drought/flood events; restoration research to focus on how best to reduce competitive vegetation, such as titi in wetlands; provide a quantitatively-described phenological life history; population biology studies; pollination studies; and seed studies.

Cindy Campbell

01/01/2010

Bok Tower Gardens has made plans to collect seeds from each population in the wild and bring them into cultivation for reintroduction in the event of native population destruction and for research purposes. These seed collections from native populations will establish populations for study and act as seed sources for future reintroductions. Accession and store seed with the National Seed Storage Lab, genetic studies, seed studies, and development of optimal propagation protocols for both seed and vegetative reproduction are to be made in the future.