Sarracenia rubra
Sarracenia psittacina
red pitcherplant, sweet or red pitcher plant, sweet pitcherplant
parrot 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.
persistent, appearing before flowers, produced in 1 form throughout the summer, sprawling, decumbent, or, sometimes, ascending, red-purple reticulate, distal 1/2 with white areolae, 8–30(–40) cm, firm, surfaces glabrous, wings 1–4 cm wide;
orifice round (formed by fusion of hood and orifice-rim margins, opening laterally beneath hood), 0.5–1 cm diam., rim green, (turned inwards, forming 1-way trap entrance), not flared or revolute, without indentation distal to wing;
hood recurved adaxially and expanded, forming subglobose head surrounding orifice, dominated by white areolae bordered by green to strongly red-purple tissue and reticulate veins, not undulate, 2–4 × 2–4(–5) cm, ± as long as wide, base of hood and neck indistinct, apiculum absent or 1 mm, adaxial surface with hairs to 2 mm (with dense retrorse hairs in distal portion of pitcher tube to 4 mm).
absent.
absent.
1–2, from 1 bud, 12–75 cm, usually 1.5–2(–3) times height of tallest pitchers;
bracts 0.4–1 cm.
15–35 cm, mostly longer than pitchers;
bracts 0.6–0.8 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.
slightly fragrant;
sepals maroon, 1.5–2.5 × 1–2 cm;
petals maroon-red, distal portion obovate, 2–4.5 × 1–2.5 cm, margins entire;
style disc yellow-green with reddish margins, 2–3 cm diam.
0.5–1.5 cm diam.
1 cm diam.
1.2–1.5 mm.
1.5–2 mm.
= 26.
= 26.
Sarracenia rubra
Sarracenia psittacina
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.)
Sarracenia psittacina is usually the latest-flowering species of the genus. It is distinguished by basal rosettes of radiating pitchers often resting flat against the ground. Sometimes, the clumps mound up or form mats, produced from the intermingling of multiple growing points. It can grow in some of the wettest habitats, often submerged under water for periods—perhaps trapping aquatic invertebrates. The pitchers can be overlooked in dense vegetation, the presence of the plants indicated only by their flowering scapes emerging through the matted grass. It occurs on the coastal plain from eastern Georgia to extreme northeastern Florida, west to southwestern Georgia across the Florida panhandle to southern Alabama, southern Mississippi, and barely into southeastern Louisiana. A form bearing pitchers to 40 cm long may be found in the wetter parts of the Okefenokee Swamp of southeastern Georgia, along with S. minor var. okefenokeensis.
Sarracenia psittacina is unusual in that the proximal 1/2 of the pitchers are lined internally with a meshwork of retrorse hairs, to 4 mm, that force prey ever deeper into the trapping tubes.
(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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