Species
+

Pinguicula grandiflora Lam.

Giant Butterwort, Large-Flowered Butterwort

Climate known 77 photographs Carnivorous plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Pinguicula grandiflora, commonly known as the large-flowered butterwort, is a temperate insectivorous plant in the Lentibulariaceae family. One distinguishing feature of the species is its flower, which is much larger than the average for the genus.

Text from Wikipedia, “Pinguicula grandiflora”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Pinguicula

Pinguicula, commonly known as butterworts, is a genus of carnivorous flowering plants in the family Lentibulariaceae. They use sticky, glandular leaves to lure, trap, and digest insects in order to supplement the poor mineral nutrition they obtain from the environment. 126 species are currently accepted. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Pinguicula”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Lentibulariaceae
Described by
Lam.
Native to
Ireland, Switzerland, France +1
Wild records
1419 in range· 902 open

At a glance

Warmest month
20°C
Jul, mean day; nights 10 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1460mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Nov 153 mm (CHELSA)
Light
9–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a carnivorous plant by the genus Pinguicula, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and March to May in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1460 mm a year, wettest November at 153 mm, driest July at 86 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -10.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Pinguicula alpicola (Gentry) Casper; Pinguicula arvetii P.LeBrun & Ruffier-Lanche; Pinguicula arvetii P.LeBrun & Ruffier-Lanche ex E.Chas; Pinguicula grandiflora f. grandiflora; Pinguicula grandiflora subsp. reuteri (Gentry) Rouy and 13 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a carnivorous plant by the genus Pinguicula, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and March to May in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1072 mm of 1460 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and March to May. Mean temperature moves 15.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July and September to November.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1460 mm a year, wettest November at 153 mm, driest July at 86 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1460 mm a year at the habitat, 1072 mm of it September to January and March to May. Wettest month November at 153 mm, driest July at 86 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1015 mm to 1992 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -10.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -10.0 °C, the absolute minimum -18.7 °C, about 157 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -4.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -9.7 °C to 2.7 °C), warmest day 19.7 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -10.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 3 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Jul; mean night from -4 °C in Jan to 10 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1460 mm of rain a year, most in Nov. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 790 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -18.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 26.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost26.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-18.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 9–40RH 60–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 790 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C3 / -2–94 / -1–107 / 2–129 / 4–1413 / 8–1717 / 13–2020 / 16–2320 / 16–2316 / 12–2112 / 8–177 / 3–124 / -1–9
Night °C-4 / -10–3-4 / -9–3-2 / -7–4-0 / -5–54 / -1–98 / 3–1210 / 6–1410 / 6–158 / 3–124 / -1–9-0 / -6–6-3 / -9–4
Rain mm131 / 82–199101 / 59–160110 / 69–161134 / 96–190138 / 102–175104 / 69–13586 / 47–12097 / 53–135111 / 75–153145 / 91–200153 / 91–222150 / 92–226
DLI11 / 9–1417 / 14–2125 / 22–2932 / 29–3536 / 33–3939 / 37–4240 / 36–4335 / 32–3827 / 24–3018 / 16–2112 / 9–159 / 7–12
RH %61 / 56–6661 / 57–6461 / 58–6363 / 60–6462 / 60–6462 / 59–6560 / 57–6660 / 57–6661 / 59–6462 / 59–6562 / 58–6661 / 56–66

Each figure is the median across the 790 grid cells holding the 1399 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 936:3504 (43.175, -4.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -18.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 790 distinct grid cells holding the 1399 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 936:3504 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 43.00_-5.000, lapse-corrected +336 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1639 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeIreland, Switzerland, France, Spain· introduced: Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Germany
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker42.819, 0.251 · in the densest population, 676 records (48% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1419 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 902 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 14 km away. 27 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 20 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1419 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Pinguicula grandifloraPinguicula grandifloraPinguicula grandifloraPinguicula grandifloraPinguicula grandifloraPinguicula grandifloraPinguicula grandifloraPinguicula grandiflora

Photographs: (c) Tim Park, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Hannah Rogers, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Olivier Argagnon, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Pinguicula grandiflora, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Note on the Probable Migration of Pinguicula grandiflora through the Agency of Birds.
Prof. Allman (1878) · Journal of the Linnean Society of London Botany
La flore du parc jurassien vaudois et de ses environs /
Pascal Vittoz (1999) · reroDoc Digital Library
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Pinguicula grandiflora Lam.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Pinguicula 117 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 135 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.