''Sarracenia oreophila'', also known as the green pitcherplant, is a
carnivorous plant
Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans
Protozoa (singular: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a group of single-celled eukaryot ...
in the
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
''
Sarracenia
''Sarracenia'' ( or ) is a genus comprising 8 to 11 species of North American pitcher plants, commonly called trumpet pitchers. The genus belongs to the family Sarraceniaceae, which also contain the closely allied genera '' Darlingtonia'' and ...
''. It has highly modified leaves in the form of pitchers that act as pitfall traps for prey. The narrow pitcher leaves are tapered tubes that rise up to 75 centimetres from the ground, with a mouth 6 to 10 centimetres in circumference Like all the ''Sarracenia'', it is native to
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
. ''Sarracenia oreophila'' is the most endangered of all ''Sarracenia'' species, its range limited to a handful of sites in northern
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
,
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, and—historically--
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
.
Origin of name
''Saracenia oreophila'' takes its name from the
mountainous regions where it grows. The generic name ''Sarracenia'' is from
Michel Sarrazin
Michel Sarrazin (5 September 1659 – 8 September 1734), was an early Canadian surgeon, physician, scientist and naturalist. Born in Nuits-sous-Beaune in the province of Burgundy, he immigrated at age 25 to the colony of New France as a surgeon. ...
659–1734 a French-Canadian naturalist who first described a specimen of the genus, and ''oreophila'' literally means "mountain-loving," from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''
oreophilos'' (''oros, -eos'', "mountain," + ''philos'', "loving").
Morphology and carnivory
Like other members of the genus ''Sarracenia'', the green pitcher plant traps insects using a tubular rolled leaf which collects digestive juices at the bottom. The pitcher tube of this species is similar to that of ''
Sarracenia flava
''Sarracenia flava'', the yellow pitcherplant, is a carnivorous plant in the family Sarraceniaceae. Like all the Sarraceniaceae, it is native to the New World. Its range extends from southern Alabama, through Florida and Georgia, to the coastal ...
'', but has a wider pitcher mouth and neck and is usually somewhat shorter, reaching only 60 cm. (24 in). The uppermost part of the leaf is flared into a lid (the
operculum), which prevents excess rain from entering the pitcher and diluting the
digestive secretions within. The upper regions of the pitcher are covered in short, stiff, downwards-pointing hairs, which serve to guide
insect
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...
s alighting on the upper portions of the leaf towards the opening of the pitcher tube. The opening of the pitcher tube is retroflexed into a 'nectar roll' or
peristome Peristome (from the Greek ''peri'', meaning 'around' or 'about', and ''stoma'', 'mouth') is an anatomical feature that surrounds an opening to an organ or structure. Some plants, fungi, and shelled gastropods have peristomes.
In mosses
In mosses, ...
, whose surface is studded with
nectar
Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists ...
-secreting glands. Prey entering the tube find that their footing is made extremely uncertain by the smooth,
wax
Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to give low ...
y secretions found on the surfaces of the upper portion of the tube. Insects losing their footing on this surface plummet to the bottom of the tube, where a combination of digestive fluid, wetting agents and inward-pointing hairs prevent their escape. Some large insects (such as
wasp
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...
s) have been reported to escape from the pitchers on occasion by chewing their way out through the wall of the tube.
[Flora of North America, ''Sarracenia oreophila'' Wherry, 1933. Green pitcher plant ]
/ref>
Pitchers can vary from all green plants to lightly and heavily veined examples, as well as cultivar
A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...
s with heavily pigmented throats. Traps also take on a pink or red flush as they age.[
]
Flowers
:''See also the section on ''Sarracenia'' flowers in the main article''.
In spring
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season), a season of the year
* Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy
* Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water
* Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...
, the plant produces large, yellow flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...
s with 5-fold symmetry
Symmetry (from grc, συμμετρία "agreement in dimensions, due proportion, arrangement") in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, "symmetry" has a more precise definit ...
. The yellow petal
Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...
s are long and strap-like, and dangle over the umbrella
An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunlight. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionally used ...
-like style of the flower, which is held upside down at the end of a 50 cm long scape. The stigma of the flower are found at the tips of the 'spokes' of this umbrella. Pollinating insects generally enter the flower from above, forcing their way into the cavity between the petals and umbrella, and depositing any pollen they are carrying on the stigmata as they enter. The pollinators generally exit the flower, having been dusted with the plant's own pollen, by lifting a petal. This one-way system helps to ensure cross pollination
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds, a ...
.[
]
Growth cycle
In late summer and autumn, the plant stops producing carnivorous leaves, and instead produces flat, non-carnivorous phyllodia. In this species, these are highly recurved, short, and sickle-shaped. The natural habitat of this species dries quickly during July and the small phyllodia are probably easier to maintain with the little water available than its spring pitchers. This is a genetic adaptation and plants kept permanently wet in cultivation also lose their pitchers in mid summer. Also of note is the simultaneous flowering and pitchering at the beginning of the season as drier conditions prevent later growth of pitchers post flower production.
Taxonomy
The International Carnivorous Plant Society recognizes three cultivars of this species as follows:
*''S. oreophila'' 'Don Schnell'
*''S. oreophila'' 'Heavily Veined'
*''S. oreophila'' 'Sand Mountain'
The cultivar 'Don Schnell', unfortunately, is extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
—the only specimen died in a greenhouse catastrophe.
Threats
The green pitcher plant has suffered a devastating decline throughout its former range. Development for both urban and rural uses has led to the widespread alteration of the specific bog habitat of this species. Pitcher plants have also been over-collected for the commercial plant trade; such rare and unusual species are very popular with collectors. Today, around 34 naturally occurring populations persist but these are small and highly fragmented; most consist of fewer than 50 individuals.
Conservation
Green pitcherplants are listed as Endangered on the United States Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or "The Act"; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of ec ...
and there is an Action Plan for their recovery.[U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (March, 2003) http://www.fws.gov/cookeville/docs/endspec/pitchsa.html] The Recovery Plan focuses on the effective protection of existing populations, as the most important threat to the future of the green pitcher plant is over-collection.[U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, International Affairs (March, 2003) http://www.fws.gov/international/] Collection is banned by legislation within the United States. The species is listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...
(CITES), meaning commercial international trade in wild-sourced specimens (including parts and derivatives) is prohibited, while non-commercial international trade is regulated. Ex-situ conservation measures are also in place; seeds are stored at the USDA
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...
National Seed Technology Laboratory in Fort Collins
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
, and Atlanta Botanical Garden
The Atlanta Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located adjacent to Piedmont Park in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Incorporated in 1976, the garden's mission is to "develop and maintain plant collections for the purposes of display, ...
is propagating plants from seeds for future reintroduction programmes.
References
External links
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1552011
oreophila
Carnivorous plants of North America
Endemic flora of the United States
Flora of Alabama
Flora of North Carolina
Flora of Georgia (U.S. state)
Flora of Tennessee
Critically endangered flora of the United States
Plants described in 1933