Northern purple pitcherplant

Description

Northern purple pitcherplant is an easily recognized, long-lived, carnivorous plant. There are no other plants in Minnesota that even vaguely resemble it. It occurs in the United States from Maine to New Jersey west to Minnesota, in Washington State, and throughout southern Canada. It is found in bogs, fens, swamps and peatlands. It grows under full sun in sphagnum moss or in soil that has both peat and sand. It obtains most of its nutrients from captured insects. The soil it grows in is nutrient-poor and usually acidic, and cannot support many other plants. Individual plants can live up to 50 years in favorable conditions. However, its population has been declining due to habitat loss and possibly to nitrogen deposition from air pollution.

Northern purple pitcherplant is a native, perennial, carnivorous forb. It rises on a radiating cluster (rosette) of 6 to 10 leaves and a single flowering stem from an underground stem (rhizome) and fibrous roots. It often forms dense clumps, sometimes floating masses at the edges of bog ponds and lakes. The rhizome is short, ⅛″ to ⅝″ (3 to 15 mm) in diameter, and usually vertical, sometimes horizontal.

The leaves are modified into pitchers. The pitchers appear with or after the flowers and persist throughout the summer. They may be upright, curve upward from the base (ascending), or decline on the ground with just the tip ascending (decumbent). They are variable in color, usually green with reddish-purple veins, often reddish-purple just near the tip, sometimes completely reddish-purple. They are firm, slightly S-curved, and bulging in the middle. They are usually 2″ to 10″ (5 to 25 cm) long, rarely up to 17¾″ (45 cm) long, and 1 3⁄16″ to 2⅜″ (3 to 6 cm) in circumference at its widest point, 3½ times as long as wide. The outer surface is hairless, sometimes waxy. The orifice is round to oval, 9⁄16″ to 1 7⁄16″ (14 to 36 mm) wide, and open to the sky, allowing the pitcher to collect rainwater.

Each pitcher has a winged extension on the upper (inner) side and a hood at the top. The wing is ⅜″ to 1 3⁄16″ (1 to 3 cm) wide. The hood is thick, erect, heart-shaped, notched at the tip, ¾″ to 2″ (2 to 5 cm) long, and 1 3⁄16″ to 2¾″ (3 to 7 cm) wide. The two rounded lobes at the base arch inward over the orifice. The inner surface is covered with numerous, stiff, downward-pointing, 1⁄64″ to 1⁄16″ (0.6 to 2.2 mm) long hairs.

The inflorescence is a single flower at the end of a long, leafless, stalk (scape). The scape is hairless, erect, green to reddish-purple, and 8⅝″ to 31⅛″ (22 to 79 cm) long.

The flower is 2″ to 2½″ wide and droops at the end of the scape. There are 5 outer floral leaves (sepals), 5 petals, 50 to 100 stamens, and 1 style. The sepals are purplish-red, broadly egg-shaped–triangular, ⅞″ to 1⅝″ (22 to 42 mm) long, and ⅝″ to 1⅜″ (15 to 35 mm) wide. They curve inward just at the tips. The petals are red to maroon, and are fiddle-shaped, with a small basal portion and a large outer (distal) portion. They curve inward, covering the style. The distal portion is broadly egg-shaped, 1 5⁄16″ to 2 1⁄16″ (33 to 53 mm) long, and ⅝″ to 1 3⁄16″ (15 to 30 mm) wide. The stamens are grouped into 10 to 17 bundles. The style is expanded at the tip into a very broad, 1 9⁄16″ to 2″ (4 to 5 cm) in diameter, umbrella-like disk with 5 inward-curved arms.

The fruit is a globe-shaped or egg-shaped, ⅜″ to ¾″ (1 to 2 cm) in diameter capsule. As the capsule develops the petals drop off but the sepals persist.

Height

8⅝″ to 31⅛″ (22 to 79 cm)

Flower Color

Reddish-purple

Similar Species

Habitat

Wet. Bogs, marshes, swamps, fens, and peatlands. Full sun. Acidic soil with sphagnum moss or peat and sand.

Ecology

Flowering

March to August

Pests and Diseases

Use