It grows in gypsum soils and forms stemless rosettes of upright, narrow leaves.

As is typical for Pinguicula, the carnivorous leaves are densely covered with stalked mucilaginous and sessile digestive glands, which serve to trap and digest insect prey and absorb the resulting nutrient mixture to supplement their nitrate-low environment.

The carnivorous leaves of this species are bright green to reddish and grow up to 6.5 cm.

Pinguicula gypsicola is known only from a few areas near its type location west of the city of San Luis Potosí.

It grows in gypsum slopes accompanied by other xerophytic vegetation such as Cactaceae, Agave stricta, A. striata, Selaginella cuspidata, Dasylirion longissimum, Dodonaea viscosa and Hechtia glomerata.