Discovering Pinguicula vulgaris in the Wild — A Family Hike Near Tromsø Norway 🇳🇴

There’s a quiet magic in the subarctic summer — when the light barely fades, and time stretches into soft, lingering hours. On a recent hike just outside Tromsø, our little family had a moment we won’t forget: spotting the delicate Pinguicula vulgaris, or common butterwort, blooming in the wild.

We had set out that morning for a simple family hike — my wife Alice, our 6-month-old son Luca, and me. The trail turned out to be a bit more of a challenge than we’d expected. It wound uphill through alpine tundra, across stones, and along cliffs where we had to pick our steps carefully. Luca was snug in the carrier against my chest, happily snoozing through most of it, while Alice — steady and cheerful as always — helped keep us on track.

After a couple of hours, with our legs starting to feel the climb and our bellies thinking about lunch, we began to loop back toward the parking area. That’s when we passed a small, quiet pond just off the trail — still and mirror-like, edged by moss and cotton grass. As we paused to admire it, something caught my eye low to the ground near the water’s edge: a flash of soft violet.

There they were — Pinguicula vulgaris, tucked into a damp hollow just a few steps from the pond. Their delicate purple flowers rose gently above sticky rosettes of pale green leaves, each leaf glistening in the light. Carnivorous, beautiful, and easy to miss unless you were really looking.

It felt like a small reward at the end of our hike — a little gift itself. I crouched down to take a closer look and waved Alice over. Luca was just waking up, blinking at the light and stretching against me. We showed him the flowers, even though he won’t remember them. But I will. I’ll remember how still the pond was, how good the tiredness in my legs felt, and how quietly special that moment was — the three of us together at the edge of the wild.

One day, when Luca’s older, we’ll show him photos and tell him about that first summer hike up north — the day we found a rare little carnivorous plant just before reaching the car. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll hike that trail again, with him walking beside us this time.