Sarracenia minor
Small pitcher plant ( Sarracenia minor)
The little pitcher plant ( Sarracenia minor) is a native North American plant of the genus of pitcher plants ( Sarracenia ) in the family of Pitcher plants ( Sarraceniaceae ).
Description
The little pitcher plant is a typical, upright pitcher plant with a horizontally extending rhizome.
As the botanical name suggests ( "minor " means " small" ), the plant is small, relative to other Sarracenia species. The tubes are 25 to 35 cm long (sometimes 50 cm).
The leaves have a clever means to lure their victims and deceive: the very characteristic for this type of lid with translucent "windows" on the back of the tube mouth. The tube mouth is completely covered by the lid, lid and upper hose part stain under intense sunlight bronze red.
The little hose plant seems particularly ants, but also attract flies and wasps. These are often highly attracted in large numbers by nectar traces along the wing bar on the case edge.
The light yellow / sulfur- yellow flowers appear from March to May
Dissemination
To find the plant is in the coastal areas of the middle Florida Georgia to the southern part of North Carolina. The particularly high-growing, slender form ( S. minor " Okefenokee Giant" ) is found in the Okefenokee Swamp (South Georgia). S. minor grows in wetlands and - compared to other Sarracenia species - even in rather drier areas (especially in Florida). The location is also sometimes shady, where the plants are shaded from larger wetlands as their " sunny dry comrades".
System
In addition to the nominate form and the variety Sarracenia minor ( Walt. var okefenokeensis Fast) is described. She has much larger tubes, 60 to 90 cm (sometimes up to 120 cm ), flowering about two weeks later than the nominate form, preferably very wet habitats, occurrence exclusively in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.
Botanical history
The first drawings of the plant have already been made in 1576 by Matthias de L' Obel, it was described in 1788 by Thomas Walter.
Swell
- Donald Schnell: Sarracenia minor Walt. var okefenokeensis Fast: A New Variety, in: CPN 31 ( 2) :54 -56, June 2002