You’ll find the starfish rosettes of greasy-looking yellow-green leaves of butterwort, just an inch or two across, dotted around on boggy ground. Common Butterwort, Pinguicula vulgaris, is a small carnivorous plant which traps insects on the sticky surfaces of its yellow-green leaves. The in-rolled margins gradually curl around to digest the prey. It’s a member of the bladderwort family, found on heaths, moors and in bogs, in damp, acid habitats where nutrients are in short supply.
In 1635 the herbalist Gerard wrote:
“The husbandmans wives of Yorkshire do use to anoint the dugs (udders) of their kine with fat and oilous juice of the herbe Butterworte, when they are bitten by any venomous worm, or chapped, rifted, and hurt by any other means.”
I drew this on my iPad, using the program Clip Studio Paint, from a photograph that I’d taken in May last year, by the track up onto the moor at Moss End, Oughtershaw, in Langstrothdale.
Lovely drawing. Might try Clip Studio Print myself. David Hockney uses ipad for drawing and if it’s good enough for him….
I’m finding the iPad useful for getting ahead with my articles. This, along with the snipe-fly, is for my May ‘Dalesman’ magazine nature diary. I’ve dropped it into a page layout and I’m pleased with the way it looks. It will be just an inch across on the page, which is why I’ve gone for a bold pen for the outline and not gone in for any fine cross-hatching. Also on the page is a regular pen and watercolour landscape from my real sketchbook and the style of iPad and real world drawings go well together. I think most readers won’t spot the difference.
I remember seeing these flowers on the fells above Haweswater . They are a beautiful colour and I thought the leaves look like stars.
It’s a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde, with those attractive flowers to welcome pollinators.