''Sarracenia rosea'' is a species of

pitcher plant Pitcher plants are several different carnivorous plants which have modified leaves known as pitfall traps—a prey-trapping mechanism featuring a deep cavity filled with digestive liquid. The traps of what are considered to be "true" pitcher p ...

in the genus ''

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 ...

'' and is sometimes known as Burk's southern pitcher plant. It was previously classified as a

variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

of '' S. purpurea'' subsp. ''venosa'' (var. ''burkii''). The proposition for the plant to be named a new species arose in 1999. This proposition was based on three main factors: ''S. rosea'' has larger flowers on shorter stalks; it produces light pink petals, a feature no other species in the genus exhibits; and it has a somewhat different pitcher structure than ''S. purpurea''.Rice, B.A. 2006
The Carnivorous Plant FAQ: ''Sarracenia rosea''
Accessed 1 June 2007. A form which lacks

anthocyanin Anthocyanins (), also called anthocyans, are water-soluble vacuolar pigments that, depending on their pH, may appear red, purple, blue, or black. In 1835, the German pharmacist Ludwig Clamor Marquart gave the name Anthokyan to a chemical compo ...

s has been described as ''Sarracenia rosea'' f. ''luteola''. The species is native to the

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Mississ ...

of the

Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...

, and has been found from

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

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 ...

. However, the areas in which the plant occurs are being developed, so the species's habitat is threatened. However along with ''

Sarracenia psittacina ''Sarracenia psittacina'', also known as the parrot pitcherplant, is a carnivorous plant in the genus ''Sarracenia''. Like all the ''Sarracenia'', it is native to North America, in the Southeastern United States. ''Sarracenia psittacina'' emplo ...

'', this species readily colonizes drainage ditches along highways throughout the gulf states providing a somewhat more sustainable albeit less natural habitat. But, even with the drainage ditch habitat there is danger from DOT ROW spraying of miscellaneous herbicides, primarily growth-suppressants and broadleaf killers. ''S. rosea'' is appreciably more shade-tolerant than the other members of the genus.

Botanical history

''Sarracenia rosea'' was first identified by the American botanist Edgar T. Wherry as a "mutant" form of '' S. purpurea'' in 1933 based on specimens collected by Frank Morton Jones in 1910 near

Theodore, Alabama Theodore is an unincorporated area and census-designated place (CDP) in Mobile County, Alabama, Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 6,270 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is a part of the Mobile metropolitan ...

and Wherry's own collections in 1932, likely also from southern Alabama. These plants differed from ''S. purpurea'' in the rose-pink petals and nearly white

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

(''S. purpurea'' has deep maroon petals and the style is typically green). Wherry sent specimens to Louis Burk, a

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

horticulturalist, who confirmed Wherry's field observations in greenhouse-grown plants. Wherry followed this revelation and suggested naming the variety in honor of Burk, but it remained unpublished.Schnell, D.E. 1993
''Sarracenia purpurea'' L. ssp. ''venosa'' (Raf.) Wherry var. ''burkii'' Schnell (Sarraceniaceae)—a new variety of the Gulf coastal plain.
''Rhodora'' 95: 6-10. Based on the morphological differences from the southern subspecies, ''S. purpurea'' subsp. ''venosa'', and the geographic isolation of the populations with pink petals along the Gulf Coast, the American botanist Donald E. Schnell formally described this taxon in a 1993 issue of ''

Rhodora ''Rhododendron canadense'', the rhodora or Canada rosebay, is a deciduous flowering shrub that is native to northeastern North America. Classification Today's botanists consider the rhodora to be a distant relative of the other North American ...

'', the journal of the New England Botanical Club. Schnell decided to place this taxon at the rank of variety below subsp. ''venosa'' as ''S. purpurea'' var. ''burkii'', honoring Louis Burk as Wherry had suggested 60 years earlier. In 1999, however, botanists Robert Naczi, then a professor of biology at

Northern Kentucky University Northern Kentucky University is a public university in Highland Heights, Kentucky. It is primarily an undergraduate institution with over 14,000 students; over 12,000 are undergraduate students and nearly 2,000 are graduate students. Northern K ...

, and Frederick and Roberta Case elevated the variety to species rank, naming it ''Sarracenia rosea''. They compiled morphological data from specimens of ''S. purpurea'' and ''S. rosea'' and found significant differences in scape height, petal size, pitcher "lip" thickness, and pitcher leaf morphology. All of this evidence, combined with the

allopatric Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

distribution that does not overlap with ''S. purpurea'', lead the authors to determine the Gulf Coast populations with pink petals are worthy of recognition at species rank. They chose to assign a new epithet, ''rosea'', to the species rather than utilize the varietal epithet ''burkii'' as allowed under article 11.2 of the ''

International Code of Botanical Nomenclature The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all those "trad ...

'' to avoid confusion and express the color of the flowers in the species epithet.Naczi, R.F.C., E.M. Soper, F.W. Case Jr., and R.B. Case. 1999
''Sarracenia rosea'' (Sarraceniaceae), a new species of pitcher plant from the Southeastern United States.
''SIDA'' 18: 1183-1206.

References

External links

at Barry Rice's carnivorous plant FAQ.
UC Photos gallery — ''Sarracenia rosea''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5860768 rosea Carnivorous plants of North America Endemic flora of the United States Flora of Alabama Flora of Florida Flora of Georgia (U.S. state) Flora of Mississippi Plants described in 1993 Flora without expected TNC conservation status