Common Butterwort

Common butterwort is a small carnivorous plant found across boggy and nutrient-poor habitats of Europe, northern Asia, and North America, growing as a flat rosette of pale green, greasy-looking leaves. The leaves are coated in a sticky mucilage that traps small insects such as gnats and flies, after which the leaf edges slowly curl inward to press the prey against digestive glands. In late spring it sends up slender stalks bearing single violet flowers well above the sticky foliage, keeping its pollinating insects safely apart from its prey-catching leaves.