Sarracenia purpurea

Plant Characteristics

Habit		herbaceous
Height:	⇕	10 in"in" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 10.
Width:	⇔	24 in"in" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 24.
Lifespan:	⌛	perennial
Bloom:	❀	early spring, mid spring, late spring

Cultivation

Exposure:	☼	sun
Features:	✓	flowers
USDA Zones:		2 to 9
Flower features:	❀	red, pink

Scientific Names

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Sarracenia purpurea — commonly known as the purple pitcher plant or side-saddle flower — is a carnivorous plant in the family Sarraceniaceae. Its range includes almost the entire eastern seaboard of the United States, the Great Lakes, and south eastern Canada, making it the most common and broadly distributed pitcher plant, as well as the only member of the genus that inhabits cold temperate climates. The species is the floral emblem of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

S. purpurea

Like other species of Sarracenia, S. purpurea obtains most of its nutrients through prey capture. However, prey acquisition is said to be inefficient, with less than 1% of the visiting prey captured within the pitcher. Even so, anecdotal evidence by growers often shows that pitchers quickly fill up with prey during the warm summer months. Prey fall into the pitcher and drown in the rainwater that collects in the base of each leaf. Prey items such as flies, ants, spiders, and even moths, are then digested by an invertebrate community, made up mostly by the mosquito Wyeomyia smithii and the midge Metriocnemus knabi. Protists, rotifers (including Habrotrocha rosa), and bacteria form the base of inquiline food web that shreds and mineralizes available prey, making nutrients available to the plant. New pitcher leaves do produce digestive enzymes such as hydrolases and proteases, but as the individual leaves get older into their second year, digestion of prey material is aided by the community of bacteria that live within the pitchers.

Read about Sarracenia purpurea in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Sarracenia purpurea, Linn. The common pitcher-plant of the N. and the one on which the genus was founded. Fig. 3551. Pitchers ascending, in rosettes of 3-6, 2-10 in. long, widest toward middle, narrowed below and upward, green to dark purple; lid upright or slightly inclined outward with fine hispid hairs over inner lid or attractive surface; wing broad, prominent: fls. 1 1/4- 1 3/4 in. wide; sepals and petals greenish purple to purple. In wet sandy muck or by swamp margins from Labrador and Minn. to N. Fla. and Ala.; flowering from fourth week in March in N. Fla. to second week of Aug. in Lab.—Very variable in coloring from bright green in shady places to dark purple in sunny situations. According to Loddiges, writing in 1823, this species was "cultivated before the year 1640 by Tradescant, who was gardener to King Charles the First." Var. heterophylla, Eaton. Lvs. pale green: fls. yellow-green to yellow. Very rare in Mass., W. N. Y., and S. N. J. CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

Gallery

• LIBog 018.jpg

  A Sphagnum peat bog with Sarracenia purpurea.

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Sarracenia purpurea. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Sarracenia purpurea QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)