Pinguicula means "greasy one" in Latin. Their common name is butterwort or "ping". Butterworts are usually small plants a few inches across which grow their leaves in a rosette, like Sundews. Their tapered leaves are flat on the ground and are pale yellow to green.

The leaves of pings have a greasy feel and are covered with tiny hairs at the end of each one there is a gland which produces a clear, sticky glue. Small insects, like gnats, which carelessly land on a ping leave quickly realize that the more they struggle to escape the more they become immobile by sticking on more and more glands. The ping then releases digestive enzymes and acids which turn their victim into a nutricious soup, ready for absorption by the plant.

Pings are native to half the world and live in a variety of climates. There are about seventy known species world-wide, with six of these species native to the SE USA, and with one species, Pinguicula pumila, the small butterwort native to Angelina, Tyler, and Newton counties in the pine wetlands of East Texas.

P. pumila is a perennial plant no more than three-quarters-of-an-inch across, and up to 4 inches tall.  Its light-green leaves are succulent and their edges are curled.   The leaves have been used for their antiseptic properties to treat wounds, and to curdle milk.  

Its flowers have five petals, are about 1/2-inch long, and can be yellow, pink, white, or purple-white.  P. pumila flowers all summer long.  It lives side-by-side with pitcher plants, bladderworts, and sundews in bogs and savannas.