Parrot Pitcher Plant Sarracenia psittacina

Pitcher Plant can be found in boggy low-lying areas of pine forests.  It grows in water or in moist, swampy soil that is usually high in sphagnum moss and acid and low in nutrients such as nitrogen.  A typical site can be where a wildfire has destroyed surrounding vegetation and thereby providing full sun.  The plant will obtain its needed nutrients by consuming insects, spiders and maybe even a small frog or two.

The leaves resemble narrow tubes having a wing on the side facing the center of the plant.  Mature plants have leaves with a balloon-like reddish-purple hood with a tipped into a beak-like opening resembling a parrot head, hence the common name.  The tubular pitchers are horizontal to the ground and form a rosette.  These downward facing hoods on mature leaves act like a "lobster trap" to eat insects.  Attracted by the plants' nectar, insects enter the hooded area where they are trapped in the digestive fluid of the plant. Escape is prohibited by downward-facing hairs that allow entry but prohibit exiting.  The plant can survive underwater to so the plant consumes aquatic insects, tadpoles, fish, and even frogs.  

Insects, Diseases and Other Plant Problems:  A dormant winter period is needed, making this plant not suitable as a houseplant or to tropical climates.