Sarracenia purpurea
Sarracenia oreophila
common pitcher-plant, frog's-britches, huntsman's-horns, northern pitcher plant, purple pitcher plant, purple sarracenia, sanicle, sarracénie pourpre, side-saddle flower
green pitcher plant
persistent, appearing with or after flowers and continuously all summer, decumbent or sprawling to ascending, nearly green with various degrees of red or purple veins, or suffused reddish or purplish to nearly uniformly purplish red, without white areolae, urceolate (gently S-curved like a hunter’s horn), 5–25(–45) cm (bulging distal of middle, 3–6 cm at widest point), firm, sometimes shiny or waxy, external surface glabrous or glabrate to densely pubescent, wings 1–3(–4) cm diam.;
orifice round to oval, (gaping, with rainwater held in pitcher), 1.4–3.6 cm wide, rim green to purplish red, (thick, flaring), loosely revolute, scarcely or not indented distal to wing, (0.7–3.1 mm wide at thickest point);
hood erect or with lobes arched together over orifice, same colors and veined as pitcher, reniform, undulate or entire, 2–5 × 3–7 cm, wider than long, basal lobes cordate, attached to sides of rim of orifice with no neck, distal portion somewhat abaxially recurved and notched apically, apex not apiculate, adaxial surface with decurved setae 0.6–1.8(–3) mm.
marcescent, withering by mid summer, appearing with or just prior to flowers in 1 flush, erect, green to yellowish green, sometimes purple-veined or suffused with purple, without white areolae, 18–75 cm, firm, surfaces glabrous, wings 0.5–1 cm wide;
orifice oval, 2–4.5 cm diam., rim green to red, flared and loosely revolute, often with slight indentation immediately distal to wing;
hood recurved adaxially, held well beyond and covering orifice, yellow-green, infrequently suffused with purple, or purple reticulate-veined or purple-spotted at neck, without white areolae, broadly ovate-reniform, somewhat undulate, 2–8 × 2.5–8 cm, ± as long as wide, proximal margins weakly cordate such that opposite lobes reflex abaxially, not touching, neck (rarely red-blotched), constricted, 1–2 cm, margins revolute, apiculum 1–2 mm, adaxial surface with hairs to 0.5 mm.
absent.
3–5, usually more numerous than pitchers, decumbent to ascending, weakly to strongly falcate, 5–18 × 0.5–3.5 cm.
22–79 cm, much longer than pitchers;
bracts 0.5–0.8 cm.
45–70 cm, shorter than pitchers;
bracts (yellowish), 0.6–1.2 cm, (blunt apically).
moderately fragrant to mixed fragrant and ill-scented;
sepals purplish red, 2.2–4.2 × 1.5–3.5 cm;
petals red to maroon, distal portion elliptic to obovate, 3.3–5.3 × 1.5–3 cm, margins entire;
style disc green, 4–5 cm diam., (style arms 1.7–3.8 cm).
slightly ill-scented;
sepals yellow, 3–5 × 2–3 cm;
petals yellow, distal portion oblong-elliptic to slightly obovate, 4–5.5 × 1.4–1.7 cm, margins entire;
style disc yellow-green, 5–8.5 cm diam.
1–2 cm diam.
1.5–1.8 cm diam.
1.7–2 mm.
1.8–2 mm.
= 26.
= 26.
Sarracenia purpurea
Sarracenia oreophila
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).
Sarracenia purpurea is probably the most recognized of the pitcher plants. It has rapidly and effectively populated peat bogs in the northern regions during the 10,000–12,000 years since glaciation. It is the only pitcher plant that grows naturally north of southeastern Virginia; in North America, it has become naturalized at least in northern California and the Pacific Northwest. While it may be the stereotypical pitcher plant to the general public, it is atypical of Sarracenia species in that it, along with S. rosea, holds rainwater.
Within Sarracenia purpurea, there is much overlap of character states among the infraspecific taxa, and there are always exceptions and problematic specimens, especially where they may hybridize with other species in the Carolinas. See D. E. Schnell (1979, 1981) for further discussion of variants. C. R. Bell (1949), S. McDaniel (1971), and A. M. Ellison et al. (2004) did not accept the subspecies designations presented by E. T. Wherry (1933, 1972); we believe that there are sufficient morphological distinctions that are substantiated by observations made in uniform garden culture (Case, pers. obs.; Schnell 1979) to recognize subspecies.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Of conservation concern.
Sarracenia oreophila is rare and local, the first pitcher plant to be listed as federally endangered. Populations are threatened by fire suppression and land drainage. It occurs in isolated colonies in open wetlands and in shaded woods when fire or pasturing do not remove vegetation cover. In open, wet sites it makes impressive stands. It is the only Sarracenia to occur in rocky sandbar deposits along a major river in northeastern Alabama. It is known from central and northeastern Alabama, adjacent Georgia, and the mountains of North Carolina (Clay County). Early reports from Tennessee are not supported by specimen evidence. Sarracenia oreophila is able to survive drought better than other species of the genus. But, unlike the others, the pitchers do not last well into the summer and usually die down completely by mid July.
Sarracenia oreophila is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Pitchers glabrous or glabrate externally, lengths 3.5+ times diam.; setae on adaxial surface of hood 0.6-1.2(-2.2) mm; se Virginia and mountains of Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, northward. | subsp. purpurea |
1. Pitchers usually distinctly pubescent externally, lengths to 3.5 times diam.; setae on adaxial surface of hood 1.1-1.8(-3) mm; Atlantic coastal plain and piedmont of North Carolina southward through South Carolina and e Georgia. | subsp. venosa |
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