Yellow Butterwort
Pinguicula lutea
Found in pine flatwoods; pine savannas; sandhills; seeps and springs. FloraQuest, phone app (app page) What its natural habitat tells you
Native to Alabama. How scores work Is it native here?
Profile 65%
- Height
- Up to about 20 inches
- Light
- Full sun, Partial shade
- Soil moisture
- Usually moist
At a glance
- Life cycle
- Perennial
Not yet recorded · Spread · Leaves · Bloom
Bloom: NC species account not read yet.
Spread and leaves: no source found yet.
This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.
Recorded in 8 Alabama counties.
Natural habitats
Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Flat, sandy Coastal Plain pine woodlands, wetter than sandhills and denser than savannas.
Open, fire-kept longleaf pine stands over grasses and wildflowers on wet to moist sandy soil.
Dry, deep-sand ridges with longleaf pine and turkey oak, kept open by fire.
Places where groundwater keeps the soil or rock wet, such as seepage slopes and spring runs.
Who uses this plant?
0CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including AL
0BeesSoutheastern regional records
0Specialist beesPollen specialists
—BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claimNo records yet · Ants · Beetles · Flies · Adult butterflies / moths · Other wasps · Other insects
Plant details
- Family
- Lentibulariaceae
- Hardiness
- Zones 8b–10b
- Flower color
- Yellow
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Growing sources and scope
- Flower color · “Yellow” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Hardiness · “Zones 8b–10b” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Height · “Up to about 20 inches” · Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
- Life cycle · “Perennial” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Light · “Full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day); Partial shade (direct sunlight only part of the day, 2-6 hours)” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox (ranked first; Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center differs)
- primary_flower_color · “yellow” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Soil · “Occasionally wet” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox (ranked first; Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center differs)
Conservation status
| Alabama rank | SNR |
|---|---|
| Global rank | G4G5 |
| AL status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Will it fit your yard?
Check this plant against your county, sun and soil moisture. Conditions are checked in your browser.
Sources
- Alabama Plant Atlas
- USDA PLANTS
- Vascular Plants of North Carolina (NC Natural Heritage Program)
- FloraQuest: Carolinas, Georgia (Weakley), phone app (app page)
- NatureServe Explorer
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications