The Carnivorous Plant FAQ v. 12

Q: Carnivorous plants of Central America and the Caribbean.

A: Despite the enormous biodiversity of Central America, there are surprisingly few carnivorous plants from this region. The most interesting endemic carnivorous plant species are the fascinating Pinguicula of the Caribbean. Other than that, the region has some nice Utricularia, including a few endemics.

Remember that I warned you that the compendia of species lists on this page date to maybe around 2007. For more updated information, you will have to do more digging!

Small contributions
Let us start with a few genera for which only a few species are present. None are endemic to the region. Species include: Catopsis berteroniana, Drosera brevifolia, D. capillaris, D. cayennensis, D. intermedia, D. kaieteurensis, Genlisea filiformis, and G. pygmaea

Pinguicula
While Central America is not very useful for this genus, the Caribbean adds a large number of very interesting species; Cuba is particularly rich in species! There are more than twenty species in the region, many of which are endemic.

Utricularia
Finally, this genus adds a large number of species, as to be expected. There are only a few endemics, such as U. incisa, U. panamensis, and U. praetermissa, but more than about 30 species all told.

Page citations: Casper, J. 1966; Lampard, S. et al. 2016; Rice, B.A. 2006a; Robinson, A., et al. 2017; Schlauer, J. 2002; Taylor, P. 1989.

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Revised: 2018
©Barry Rice, 2018