Local butterwort loves bugs

"Oh yes, and your right eye may have one as well." The ophthalmologist then showed me a little bump on the white of my eye. Pinguicula, yellowish patches or bumps on the white of the eye, are caused by chronic irritation. In my case, the irritant was likely continuous exposure to sunlight at relatively high elevations where damaging ultraviolet light is more prevalent. I was hoping unlike the little bog plant, they do not cause a slow, painful death.

A rose is a rose is a rose, but a pinguicula (sometimes spelled penguicula) is not necessarily a pinguicula. Since the eye bump is neither painful nor lethal, I turned my focus on learning more about the unusual little purple plant that has evolved as an efficient insect eater.

Pinguicula is one of several flesh-eating plants such as cobra plant (common in southwest Oregon), sundew and flytraps. There are about 60 species of pinguicula worldwide, about 10 in the States and one in southwest Oregon.

If you believe in the concept of separating complex life into tidy little boxes called species, then ours is most likely pinguicula macroceras.If you want to research this species, use butterwort in your search, not pinguicula, and you will find more information than you can digest.

Most flesh eaters accumulate nitrogen and phosphorus from their victims. Since they are found on sites lacking these elements, that seems fortunately coincident.

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You can find butterwort at the base of Eight Dollar Mountain just south of Selma. It inhabits various bogs along the road to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. These bogs are on the Josephine Peridotite Mass, or old sea floor, a geologic rock known for its lack of fertility. Notice the sparse vegetation in the surrounding area characteristic of this rock type, popularly called serpentine.

Finding pinguicula won’t be easy. It is usually less than 4 inches tall and has small violet flowers and a basal rosette (basal leaves surrounding the stem near the ground) of fleshy, sticky, fragrant leaves (the smell attracts the insect and the clear sticky surface holds it as it is slowly absorbed as the leaves curl around the prey).

While it may be a challenge for humans, including botanists, to find, gnats and other small insects seem to easily find it — once.

Butterwort ("wort" when attached to plant names usually indicates medicinal value) was used as a defense against witchcraft. I think it was worn, like a necklace of garlic. I found no studies or other indications of its effectiveness, but I have not seen any witches near or in the bogs I have sampled. However, in last month’s column on censuses, I warned that "failing to detect" does not necessarily mean "absent."

Butterwort was also fed to cows to repel "elfish arrows" and "supernatural ailments." I can’t say that I have ever seen or would even recognize an "elfish arrow."

Although I see the pinguicula in my eye every time I look in the mirror, I have seen our little bog plant only once. My guess is that more people have seen witches than our local butterwort. But, it is worth the effort. When you find it, stay and watch it dine.

Tom Atzet is a retired Forest Service ecologist living in Merlin. He can be reached at P.O. Box 1226, Merlin, OR 97532.