THE NCCPG NATIONAL COLLECTION OF SARRACENIA

John and Jean Ainsworth

The genus Sarracenia is considered to be under such threat in the wildthat three of the taxa – S. oreophila, S. rubra subsp. alabamensis andS. rubra subsp. jonesii – are listed in CITES Appendix I and all of theother species and their variants are included in Appendix II. Thereasons for this threat are varied and stem from their limited naturaldistribution, their choice of habitat and their extraordinary life form.Firstly, they have a restricted distribution in the wild in the south-eastern coastal plain of North America, from the AppalachianMountains to the Atlantic, except for S. purpurea which extendsnorthwards and eastwards into Canada. Secondly, they occur onlyin nutrient-deficient substrates where the water table is high,especially in the winter months, and these habitats are underpressure due to drainage schemes and building. Finally, because oftheir remarkable beauty (florists gather the pitchers of S. leucophylla

from the native habitat) and amazing insectivorous method ofnourishment, they have attracted the attention of collectors over along period. Indeed, there are records of plants being introducedinto Britain before 1640 by John Tradescant Jr. and they were firstillustrated even earlier than this, in 1576, although it was not untilthe eighteenth century that the genus was named after Dr MichelSarrazin de l’Etang. With this degree of attention for such a longperiod there has been much depletion of the populations in the past,although they do now have CITES protection. These various factorscombined mean that sarracenias are very vulnerable and theirconservation is of great concern. Although in situ conservation is ofprimary importance, the maintenance of small collections in botanicgardens and National Collections is an additional safeguard againstloss in the wild. In addition to the authors’ Collection at Bank Farm,Bank Head Lane, Bamber Bridge, Preston, Lancashire, upon whichthis article is based, there are two other Collections of Sarracenia: oneat the nursery of Marston Exotics, Brampton Lane, Madley,Herefordshire, and another in the care of Messrs R & M Cheek, 35Wembdon Rise, Bridgwater, Somerset.

There are eight species of Sarracenia (some authorities recognizenine or more) and several subspecies and other variants; ourCollection at Preston includes all of the species and most of their

¥ Bentham-Moxon Trust 1998. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road,Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. 137

known variants. The immediate aim is, of course, one of conserva-tion, but there are other longer-term goals. Seeds are obtained bycontrolled pollination and successive generations of plants areclosely observed in order to confirm whether the original plants were‘true’ or of hybrid origin. It is also intended, by cross-pollination, toproduce primary hybrids between all the taxa; although several doexist, by no means all hybrid combinations have been made.

In addition to the work involved in the upkeep of the Collectionand achieving the aims mentioned above, illustrations of the plantsare being prepared by the botanical artist, Ann Linnell, a sample ofwhich is reproduced here.

The National Collection in our care at Preston now consists of 117different taxa and comprises the following species and their variants,as well as many hybrids which are not listed below:

S. alata – the pale trumpet. Distribution: Gulf Coast, from south-westernAlabama to the eastern plain of Texas. Flowers pale cream. Pitchers up to75 cm tall and no more than 2 cm diameter, pale green when young,darkening to yellowish-green. Phyllodia are not formed. There is variationin the pitchers in veining, colour and pubescence, and there are formswith wavy-edged lids.

S. flava – the yellow trumpet. Distribution: Southern Alabama throughFlorida and north along the coastal plain to south-eastern Virginia, witha few isolated colonies inland. Flowers pale cream. Pitchers up to 90 cm talland up to 7.5 cm diameter at the top typically yellow/green, some formsshading to deep red or with a variable red veining. Phyllodia glaucous,straight or slightly curved. There is much variation and some of thevariants have been named; in some cases they were originally describedas separate species, but are now treated as varieties.

S. flava var. rugelii. The Gulf Coast form with a large deep maroon blotch onthe centre of the hood column.

S. flava var. ornata. Almost the whole pitcher is heavily veined, including thehood.

S. flava ‘Maxima’. A selected clone but the name is often incorrectly appliedto any large form.

S. flava ‘Minima’. Pitchers heavily veined, seldom exceeding 30 cm inheight.

S. flava ‘copper lid form’. The whole outer surface of the hood and column ofthe pitcher is flushed an orange-coppery colour.

S. flava ‘red forms’. Almost the entire outside of the pitcher is coloured red tomaroon, while the inner surface and the nectar roll stays yellowish-green.Two variants have been selected and named ‘Burgundy’ and ‘Claret’.

S. flava ‘green forms’. There is no red present in the pitchers which remainyellow-green during the whole season.

138 ¥ Bentham-Moxon Trust 1998.

S. leucophylla – the white trumpet. Distribution: Western Florida throughto eastern Mississippi and, in a few places, northwards into southernGeorgia. Flowers deep red to maroon. Pitchers up to 90 cm tall, pale greenin the lower part, upper part and lid white with a netted pattern in greenand/or red to a variable degree. Phyllodia may be formed.

S. leucophylla ‘White Trumpet’. Upper part of pitcher and hood white withfine green netting; no red colouration present.

S. minor – the hooded pitcher plant. Distribution: Central Floridaextending northwards to south-eastern North Carolina, westwards to theGulf Coast and inland to north-eastern Georgia. Flowers green to yellow.Pitchers up to 75 cm tall, green with pale areolae on the upper back part,with a domed hood forming a canopy over the mouth. Phyllodia none.

S. minor ‘Odefenokee Giant’ – a giant form which may be due to habitat orgenetic variation.

S. oreophila – the green pitcher plant. Distribution: Alabama, in the SandMountain area. Flowers greenish yellow. Pitchers up to 75 cm tall, palegreen, later veined red and the hood flushed pink to red at the end of theseason. Phyllodia distinctively sickle-shaped, produced after the summerdrought and retained through the winter months. This species is nearlyextinct in its rather limited habitat.

S. psittacina – the parrot pitcher plant. Distribution: South-easternLouisiana through to western Florida and southern Alabama to southernGeorgia. Flowers red to maroon. Pitchers up to 15 cm long, pink to red,netted with areoles, initially erect, becoming decumbent, the lower partwith a distinct wing; the hood inflates and forms a bulbous lobster-pottype trap with a beak-like structure almost hiding a small, roundedentrance to the trap. Phyllodia none.

S. purpurea – the common pitcher plant. Distribution: Florida andnorthwards along the whole east coast to Newfoundland, and inland toIowa and Manitoba in Canada. Flowers pink to deep red. Pitchers broadlywinged in the lower part, decumbent, up to 30 cm long, green with red orpurple veins, the red colour sometimes suffusing the whole pitcher whenin good light; lid erect, not covering the pitcher mouth. Phyllodia none.

S. purpurea subsp. purpurea. Pitcher externally smooth to the touch and shinywith a hood that is not wavy; it is the hardiest and most widespread of allthe sarracenias.

S. purpurea subsp. venosa – southern pitcher plant. Pitcher more bulbouswith a wider mouth, externally rough to the touch, with a pronouncednectar roll and large, wavy-edged hood. The boundary between the twosubspecies is in the area around New Jersey where typical forms of bothare found, as well as intergrades.

S. rubra – the sweet trumpet pitcher plant. Distribution: Eastern coastalplain of Georgia and South Carolina. This represents a complex of taxa,closely related yet subtly different. There is still debate by botanists as towhether there are four subspecies or whether some of these should be

¥ Bentham-Moxon Trust 1998. 139

treated as species in their own right; geographical location will play apart in the decision as the variants occur in three discreet areas. Forconvenience the variants are listed here as subspecies. Flowers in allvariants, bronze-red.

S. rubra subsp. rubra. Pitchers narrow, up to 30 cm tall, olive green withmaroon veins which are particularly vivid in the upper interior part of thepitcher and inside the hood. Phyllodia produced.

S. rubra subsp. gulfensis. Also known as ‘Gulf Coast form’. Only found in a120 km diameter area of north-western Florida. Pitcher up to 55 cm,otherwise as for subsp. rubra. Phyllodia produced.

S. rubra subsp. jonesii – the mountain pitcher plant. Only found in themountains of North Carolina. Pitchers up to 70 cm tall, with a broadmouth, the hood longer than wide and slightly reflexed, with apronounced column; the veining is stronger and inclined to a morepurple shade rather than red. Phyllodia produced.The above subspecies do not die back totally, remaining evergreen inwinter.

S. rubra subsp. alabamensis – the alabama canebrake pitcher. CentralAlabama. Case & Case (1976) suggest that this should be treated as aseparate species. Pitchers in spring small, twisted and curved, the laterones up to 50 cm tall, erect and stouter with a wider mouth; hood oftenwider than long with a wavy edge; colour yellow-green with sparseveining, in late summer tinged red on the upper part of the pitcher andhood. Phyllodia produced.

S. rubra subsp. wherryi. This has a restricted range in central Alabama. Itresembles the above but the pitchers only grow to about half the height;the ground colour of the pitchers is a more olive green with conspicuousmaroon veining, more like subsp. rubra.

In addition to the variation in depth and degree of colouring mentionedin the above descriptions, variants exist in which there is a total lack of redpigmentation in either the pitchers or the flowers. It has been suggestedthat these are mutant forms where the ability to produce anthocyanins hasbeen lost. This phenomenon appears in S. purpurea, S. psittacina and S. rubra.

references and bibliography

Boulger, G. S. (1881). Sarracenias. The Gardeners’ Chronicle, new series 15:628–629.

Case, F. W. & Case, R. B. (1976). The Sarracenia rubra complex. Rhodora78: 270–325.

Cheek, M. (1988). Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (The Kew Magazine) 5: 60–65,Plate 99.

Hynes, C. (1983). Some forms of S. alata. Carnivorous Plant Society Journal.Lecoufle, M. (1990). Carnivorous Plants. Blandford Press, London.McDaniel, S. (1971). The genus Sarracenia. Bulletin of the Tall Timbers

Research Station 9.

140 ¥ Bentham-Moxon Trust 1998.

Royal Horticultural Society (1992). Dictionary of Gardening. Macmillan,London.

Schnell, D. E. (1976). Carnivorous Plants of the USA and Canada. Blair,Winston-Salem.

Slack, A. (1979). Carnivorous Plants. Ebury Press, London.Slack, A. (1986). Insect-eating Plants. Alpha Books, Sherborne.

¥ Bentham-Moxon Trust 1998. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road,Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. 141