Sarracenia rubra
Sarracenia oreophila
red pitcherplant, sweet or red pitcher plant, sweet pitcherplant
green 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, 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.
1–2, from 1 bud, 12–75 cm, usually 1.5–2(–3) times height of tallest pitchers;
bracts 0.4–1 cm.
45–70 cm, shorter than pitchers;
bracts (yellowish), 0.6–1.2 cm, (blunt apically).
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.
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.
0.5–1.5 cm diam.
1.5–1.8 cm diam.
1.2–1.5 mm.
1.8–2 mm.
= 26.
= 26.
Sarracenia rubra
Sarracenia oreophila
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.)
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 (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 |
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