Sarracenia rubra
Sarracenia alabamensis
red pitcherplant, sweet or red pitcher plant, sweet pitcherplant
Alabama canebrake pitcher plant
persistent, dying back if frozen, appearing with flowers and continuously all summer, erect, green to flushed red or solid maroon, often red- or purple-veined distally, major veins and crossveins of internal and external surfaces dark maroon-red, without white areolae, (short-petiolate, proximal solid petiolar portion to 1/4 length of pitcher, tapering gradually from base to orifice or sometimes scarcely bulging abaxially in distal portion), (6–)10–52(–57) cm, firm, waxy, external surface glabrous or puberulent, wings 0.5–2 cm;
orifice oval, 0.5–3.5 cm diam., rim green to red or maroon, tightly revolute, with no or distinct indentation distal to wing, sometimes forming spout; recurved adaxially, held beyond and covering orifice, sometimes held close to orifice, green to maroon, faintly red- or maroon-veined, or conspicuously and densely reticulate-veined, all veins of abaxial and adaxial surfaces of hood and neck red to maroon throughout proximal and distal portions, without white areolae, ovate, flat to slightly undulate, 0.7–4.5 × 0.7–4 cm, longer than wide, base attenuate to cordate, scarcely constricted, neck 0.5 cm, margins entire or slightly undulate (proximal margins scarcely reflexed), apiculum 1–3 mm, adaxial surface with hairs to 0.5 mm.
marcescent, appearing with flowers, decumbent or erect, monomorphic or trimorphic (rarely dimorphic), dull green or yellow-green, often becoming suffused with bronze to red, major veins of distal pitcher tube maroon to red-purple on internal surface, indistinctly colored on external surface, without white areolae, 8–72 cm, soft, external surface densely fine-pubescent, wings 0.3–1.5 cm wide;
orifice oval, 0.7–6.7 cm diam.;
rim yellow-green, rarely red, loosely revolute, with prominent everted indentation immediately distal to wing forming spout over wing;
hood recurved adaxially, held well above and covering orifice, dull green to yellow-green, suffused with bronze to red, veins of abaxial surface indistinctly colored, veins of adaxial surface, if colored red, colored on main veins only, colored portion only sometimes extending distal to proximal 1/2 of hood and neck, without white areolae, ovate, undulate, 0.8–9 × 0.8–8.8 cm, longer than wide, base cordate, neck 0.5–1.5 cm, apiculum 1–3 mm, adaxial surface glabrate or with hairs to 0.5 mm.
absent.
usually absent, sometimes erect or decumbent, oblanceolate, 15–20 × 1–2 cm.
1–2, from 1 bud, 12–75 cm, usually 1.5–2(–3) times height of tallest pitchers;
bracts 0.4–1 cm.
1–2, 14–57 cm, ± equaling pitchers;
bracts 0.4–1 cm.
strongly fragrant;
sepals maroon, 1.5–2.7 × 2–2.6 cm, (margins strongly reflexed abaxially after anthesis);
petals maroon to red, distal portion obovate, 2.5–4 × 1.3–2.5 cm, margins erose;
style disc greenish, 2–3.5 cm diam.
moderately fragrant;
sepals maroon-green, 2–3 × 1–2 cm, (margins strongly reflexed abaxially after anthesis);
petals maroon, distal portions obovate, 2.5–4 × 1.2–2.8 cm, margins erose;
style disc green, 2.5–4 cm diam.
0.5–1.5 cm diam.
0.6–1.2 cm diam.
1.2–1.5 mm.
1.2–1.5 mm.
= 26.
Sarracenia rubra
Sarracenia alabamensis
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).
S. McDaniel (1971) stated that his broad concept of Sarracenia rubra included four intergrading regional variants. F. W. Case and R. B. Case (1976) treated the S. rubra complex as comprising four taxa: S. alabamensis subsp. alabamensis, S. alabamensis subsp. wherryi, S. jonesii, and S. rubra. D. E. Schnell (1977) distinguished the same taxa, all as subspecies, and later described an additional one, subsp. gulfensis, which differs quantitatively from typical S. rubra. See discussion under S. alabamensis.
The relative proportion of the proximal tube interior (petiole region) that is solid helps distinguish Sarracenia rubra from S. jonesii. Some specimens of subsp. rubra from the fall line of South Carolina can be large and robust like S. jonesii.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).
The taxonomy of the Sarracenia rubra complex is controversial. The complex may be viewed as having three species, S. alabamensis, S. jonesii, and S. rubra, two of which have subspecies, as we present here; or it may be viewed as one species, S. rubra, with five subspecies. Our circumscription of taxa in the complex is based on field, garden, and greenhouse observations of all of the taxa. The five taxa have practically identical flowers and can produce pitchers whose diagnostic features may not always be clear cut due to response to the environment. Confusion may also arise when hybrids occur, or when plants are stressed.
We feel that Sarracenia jonesii is more closely related to S. rubra; both have pitchers that are firm-textured, glabrous or merely puberulent, and with distinct dark red or maroon tissue and vein coloration on both internal and external pitcher surfaces and abaxial and adaxial hood surfaces, and both generally grow in wetter habitats. Sarracenia alabamensis, on the other hand, has pitchers that are relatively softer, always pubescent, and dull green to yellow-green with bronze to red flush on distal pitchers and hoods, and less distinct red to maroon veins on the internal surface and hood surfaces. Its greatest difference from the other taxa in the complex is the trimorphic pitchers of S. alabamensis subsp. alabamensis.
We believe that an ancestral form arose in the uplands of the southern Appalachians, migrated southward along major rivers, and, upon reaching the emerging coastal plain, could have spread eastward and southward with little change from its mountain ancestor to give rise to the forms of Sarracenia rubra in the Carolinas, Georgia, and western Florida, while S. jonesii remained in the low mountains of the western Carolinas. On the other hand, we see S. alabamensis as having been isolated from ancestral mountain stock and moving southwestward via the Coosa River into the Alabama fall line sandhills. From there, it gave rise to a coastal plain form, subsp. wherryi. Thus, from late Cretaceous ancestral stock of the southern Appalachian Mountains, populations migrated into the newly formed coastal plain to their present locations, became discontinuous during Tertiary geological events, and produced the three variable but closely related species. All five taxa are allopatric with respect to each other. Designating them all as subspecies of S. rubra obscures their significant differences and evolutionary patterns.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Pitchers (6-)12-30(-50) cm, gradually tapering from base to orifice; orifices 0.5-2.5 cm diam.; hood length-to-width ratio 1-4.3; scapes 12-66 cm; sc Georgia, e North Carolina, e South Carolina. | subsp. rubra |
1. Pitchers (20-)25-52(-57) cm, gradually tapering from base to orifice with slight distal bulge; orifices 2.4-3.5 cm diam.; hood length-to-width ratio 0.8-1.5; scapes 26-75 cm; w Florida panhandle and adjacent Alabama and sw Georgia. | subsp. gulfensis |
1. Pitchers trimorphic; early spring pitchers decumbent or declined, usually sigmoidly curved (S-curved); late spring pitchers erect, yellow-green, 18-50 cm; summer pitchers erect, yellow-green, 19-72 cm; orifices 0.7-6.7 cm diam.; hoods of summer pitchers 0.8-9 × 0.8-8.8 cm; scapes 27-57 cm; Fall Line Hills, c Alabama. | subsp. alabamensis |
1. Pitchers monomorphic; spring and summer pitchers erect, dull green, 8-48 cm; orifices 0.7-4.2 cm diam.; hoods 0.8-4.6 × 0.8-5.4 cm; scapes 14-40 cm; extreme sw Alabama just n of Mobile Bay and immediately adjacent Mississippi and Florida. | subsp. wherryi |
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