Pinguicula jaumavensis belongs among the small Mexican butterworts that can look remarkably alike until their flowers and seasonal changes are examined together. It is a useful reminder that a compact pinkish rosette is an appearance, not an identification.
Name and recognition
Kew retains Pinguicula jaumavensis Debbert as an accepted species, alongside P. esseriana and P. ehlersiae. This encyclopedia follows that separation while preserving uncertainty around individual cultivated accessions. Kew’s species checklist.
Debbert’s description, reproduced in the specialist account, records numerous small, wedge-shaped succulent leaves in the dry phase and broader, glandular leaves in the wet phase. The flower is pale blue, with a yellow marking and a short, slightly curved spur. The species was described in 1991 from the Jaumave region of Tamaulipas. Species account and reproduced description.
Life among rock crevices
Fernando Rivadavia’s account of a December 2008 visit near Ciudad Victoria shows plants following cracks and occupying holes in rock. Compact winter rosettes retained some old summer leaves, while new flower stalks were developing. Small rosettes were also visible around established plants. The account was published in January 2010; these are dated observations rather than a report of present population condition. Northeastern Pings field report.
A mixed rosette therefore need not mean that a plant is failing to complete its seasonal change. Old and new leaves can coexist. Follow the emerging centre over time, instead of treating every remaining trapping leaf as evidence that the whole plant is still in its summer phase.
La Melara, Cardonal and identification
The specialist page reproduces Andreas Fleischmann’s 2005 comments on plants received directly from Debbert. It discusses a type-form resembling material labelled La Melara and a different Cardonal accession, treated there as local variation. These are useful historical horticultural distinctions; the account does not establish them as formally accepted botanical varieties. Accession history.
Preserve those labels exactly when they accompany a plant. A similar flower in a photograph cannot supply missing provenance, and a locality name should not be added to an otherwise unlabelled specimen. Record flower markings, lobe proportions and side views alongside the original supplier information.
Growing and propagating it
The published grower account uses a mineral medium and records both succulent and carnivorous rosettes, with flowering observed in both phases. It reports leaf propagation using resting leaves with intact bases; summer leaves can also be used. Cultivation and propagation observations.
For seasonal Mexican butterworts, ICPS guidance supports reducing moisture during the succulent phase and matching the mix to local humidity and watering. ICPS growing guide. Use the plant’s development to interpret that guidance in an Australian collection. A northern grower’s month-by-month routine is not a substitute for observing your own accession.
Keep vegetative offspring linked to the parent record and document any deliberate cross separately. This draft does not assign a guaranteed flowering month, a seed-set percentage or a universal temperature limit: those claims would require evidence beyond the observations reviewed here.
