[1] A species of butterwort, it forms summer rosettes of flat, succulent leaves up to 5 centimeters (2 in) long, which are covered in mucilaginous (sticky) glands that attract, trap, and digest arthropod prey.

Uniquely among Pinguicula species from the Americas, p. orchidioides produces gemma-like basal buds which elongate into stolons and serve as a means of asexual reproduction.

In the winter the plant forms a non-carnivorous rosette of small, fleshy leaves that conserves energy while food and moisture supplies are low.

The species was first described in 1844 by Alphonse Pyrame de Candolle, but following an unfortunate misidentification by his contemporary William Jackson Hooker, was relegated to the ranks of botanical synonymy and generally forgotten until it was rediscovered through the works of botanists in the 1990s.

The generic name Pinguicula is derived from the Latin pinguis (meaning "fat") due to the buttery texture of the surface of the carnivorous leaves.

During the summer when rain and insect prey are most plentiful, the plant forms a ground hugging rosette up to 10 centimeters (4 in) in diameter and composed of ovate to lanceolate leaves with distinct petioles.

[1] These leaves are carnivorous, having a large surface area densely covered with stalked mucilaginous glands with which they attract, trap, and digest arthropod prey, most commonly flies.

[4] These stolons, which have small non-glandular leaves interspersed along their length, can take root to form new plantlets upon contact with a suitable growing substrate.

On contact with an insect, the peduncular glands release additional mucilage from special reservoir cells located at the base of their stalks.

These enzymes, which include amylase, esterase, phosphatase, protease, and ribonuclease break down the digestible components of the insect body.

The throat, the portion of the flower near the attachment point which holds the reproductive organs, is funnel shaped, and the petals flare out from there into a five-lobed zygomorphic corolla.

Below the attachment point to the stem the petals are fused into an 18–26 millimeter long spur which protrudes backwards roughly perpendicular to the rest of the flower.

[2][4] The ovary and attached pistil protrude from the top of the floral tube near its opening, with the receptive stigma surface toward the front.

Pollinators exiting after collecting nectar from the spur brush against the anther, transferring pollen to the stigma of the next flower they visit.

[2] Pinguicula orchidioides was first described by French-Swiss botanist Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyramus de Candolle in 1844 based on collections by G. Andrieux (130).

[8] Two years later, Hooker described a plant he saw growing at Kew Botanical Gardens and, thinking it to be similar to Candolle's P. orchidioides, applied that name.

Pinguicula orchidioides seems to prefer humid hillsides, slopes or embankments, where it grows amongst pine-oak woodlands in reddish-brown to brown, clay or sandy-clay soil.