Northern Pitcher Plant Sarracenia purpurea

The Purple Pitcher plant is a compact, herbaceous, evergreen perennial and carnivorous plant in the pitcher plant family native to marshes and bogs, pinelands and wet forest floors in the eastern United States. The plant is also known as the Northern Pitcher Plant and it has a wider range than most pitcher plants including coastal Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, and north to New Jersey, where it is winter hardy to USDA zone 3. In pine forests, it can be found in areas that are not dense with pine, but with meadow-like openings. Typically, these openings will be waterlogged due to dense soils that lead to high acid in the soil and low nitrogen. The Purple Pitcher plant, like other pitcher plants, looks to insects for nutrients and also feeds on spiders, small frogs, mites, etc. However, it differs from others in that its upright pitcher-shaped leaves are open to the sky and collect rainwater. Insects are attracted to the leaves by droplets of nectar on the rim and upper portion of the leaf and the water below.  As the insect makes its way to the water, it will encounter downward-pointing hairs that prevent the insect from exiting and they eventually fall into the pool below and drown. The water pool contains insect-digesting enzymes that assist the plant in digesting the insect. Ironically, the plant is pollinated by the Pitcher Plant Fly (Fletcherimyia fletcheri) whose larvae live in the fluid of the pitcher plant leaves and dine on some of the trapped insects.

It has been estimated that 97.5% of pitcher plant habitats have been destroyed in the southeastern United States. They have been threatened in the wild by ongoing development; however, cultivated varieties are available. These plants are threatened by habitat loss, development, and over-collection. Never harvest these plants from the wild. They are best purchased from a reputable carnivorous plant nursery. The genus's name, Sarracenia, honors Dr. Michael Sarrazan of Quebec. In the 1700s, he sent the first pitcher plant to Europe. The species name purpurea means "purple", in reference to the color of the flowers and pitchers.

Purple Pitcher plants prefer full sun during the growing season and full sun brings out the brightest colors in the plant. The flowers of this plant hang at the tip of its leafless stems and each stem will have a single flower, which are large in comparison to the leaves. These plants have very specific requirements and are most often grown in a prepared bog garden or in containers where their environment can be controlled. They require moist to wet, acidic soils of sand and peat, but mostly sand. This plant does not like fertilizers and is sensitive to dissolved salts in chlorinated water. Rainwater or distilled water may be used in place of tap water for container plants. The plants should not be manually fed or given food scraps. The plant cannot digest fats, and fertilizers can burn the plant. The Purple Pitcher plant goes dormant in the fall and dormancy continues until spring. The leaves will turn brown, but it is best to wait and remove the foliage in the spring just before the flowers emerge. Growing them outdoors can be difficult because moist conditions must be maintained at all times. Indoors they require sun for the growing season and then winter dormancy. Whether grown in a bog garden or in containers the plant requirements must be maintained to be successful. The root system consists of a short crown with shallow fibrous roots and slender rhizomes. Offsets from the rhizomes create small colonies of plants. Individual plants can live 50 years or more.

Insects, Diseases and Other Plant Problems:  

The Purple Pitcher plant will do poorly if its specific growing conditions are not met. The biggest mistake is keeping the plant too wet. They must be protected from freezing winds. Monitor for aphids, scale, mealybugs, moth larvae, leaf spots, and root rot.

 VIDEO created by Andy Pulte for “Landscape Plant Identification, Taxonomy and Morphology” a plant identification course offered by the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee.