page_title: Pinguicula moranensis
section_title: Flowers
hierarchical_section_title: Pinguicula moranensis / Plant characteristics / Flowers
caption_attribution_description: Pinguicula moranensis flower. Taken in situ in Queretaro, Mexico.
context_page_description: Pinguicula moranensis is a perennial rosette-forming insectivorous herb native to Mexico and Guatemala. A species of butterwort, it forms summer rosettes of flat, succulent leaves up to 10 centimeters long, which are covered in mucilaginous glands that attract, trap, and digest arthropod prey. Nutrients derived from the prey are used to supplement the nutrient-poor substrate that the plant grows in. In the winter the plant forms a non-carnivorous rosette of small, fleshy leaves that conserves energy while food and moisture supplies are low. Single pink, purple, or violet flowers appear twice a year on upright stalks up to 25 centimeters long.
  The species was first collected by Humboldt and Bonpland on the outskirts of Mina de Morán in the Sierra de Pachuca of the modern-day Mexican state of Hidalgo on their Latin American expedition of 1799–1804. Based on these collections, Humboldt, Bonpland and Carl Sigismund Kunth described this species in Nova Genera et Species Plantarum in 1817.
context_section_description: Pinguicula moranensis produces one to seven flowers during each flowering period.  These are borne singly on upright flower stalks which are green to brown-green in color and usually, like the upper surface of the carnivorous leaves, are densely covered in glandular hairs; the peduncles do, in fact, trap insect prey. The peduncles are 10 to 25 centimeters (4–10 in.) long and taper from two to three millimeters (⅛ in.) at the base to one millimeter (​¹⁄₁₆ in.) at the top.
  The flowers themselves are composed of five petals which are fused at one end. The throat, the portion of the flower near the attachment point which holds the reproductive organs, is funnel shaped, and the petals flare out from there into a five-lobed zygomorphic corolla. The flowers 30 to 50 millimeters (1 ¼–2 in.) long.  Below the attachment point to the stem the petals are fused into a 15–30 millimeter long spur which protrudes backwards roughly perpendicular to the rest of the flower.
  The ovary and attached pistil protrude from the top of the floral tube near its opening, with the receptive stigma surface toward the front. Two 1 millimeter anthers hang from recurved, 2 millimeter filaments behind the pistil. Pollinators exiting after collecting nectar from the spur brush against the anther, transferring pollen to the stigma of the next flower they visit. The flowers can last up to 10 days but will wilt once they are pollinated. Pollinated ovaries ripen into 5 millimeter (​³⁄₁₆ in.) dehiscent seed capsules containing numerous 1 millimeter long seeds. The chromosome count for this species is 2n=44.
  The color and morphology of the flowers of this species is extremely variable, a source of delight to the horticulturist and headache to the taxonomist. Some generalizations, however, can be made.
  The corolla flares open into five lobes, two upper lobes and three lower lobes. The upper lobes are 7–16 millimeters (¼–⅜ in.) long by 4–9 millimeters (​⁵⁄₃₂–⅜ in.) wide and generally oblong, obovate, or cuneate. The lower lobes are similarly shaped and are 7–20 millimeters (¼–¾ in.) long by 4–18 millimeters (​⁵⁄₃₂–¾ in.) wide. The central lower lobe is usually slightly longer than its neighbors. All of the petal lobes have rounded ends. The floral tube that houses the reproductive organs and is visible at the base of corolla lobes is white or lilac in color and 4–6 millimeters (​⁵⁄₃₂–¼ in.) long. The white color of the floral tube can extend to a variable distance onto the corolla lobes, particularly in a stripe on the lower middle lobe. The color of the corolla lobes generally varies from pink to purple, but has been described by collectors as being "purple, scarlet, rosy-lavender to bluish-purple, dark pink to lavender, pinkish-purple, deep violet-purple, dark purple, bright mauve-pink, bright purple-pink, magenta with [white eye], [and] reddish pale with white eye." A rare white-flowered form is also known.
caption: Flower form from Querétaro, Mexico
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