2013-09-02

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Brads Greenhouse & Gardening

EVERYTHING EATEN ALIVE ! North American Carnivorous Pitcher Plants eating so many Insects. Sarracenia 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 Heliamphora.

Sarracenia is a genus of carnivorous plants indigenous to the eastern seaboard, Texas, the Great Lakes area and southeastern Canada, with most species occurring only in the south-east United States (only S. purpurea occurs in cold-temperate regions). The plant's leaves have evolved into a funnel in order to trap insects, digesting their prey with proteases and other enzymes. All Sarracenia trap insects and other prey without the use of moving parts. Their traps are static and are based on a combination of lures (including color, scent, and nectar) and inescapability -- typically the entrances to the traps are one-way by virtue of the highly adapted features listed above.

Most species use a combination of scent, drugged nectar, waxy deposits (to clog insect feet) and gravity to topple insect prey into their pitcher. Coniine, an alkaloid drug narcotic to insects, has been discovered in the nectar-like secretions of at least S. flava. Once inside, the insect finds the footing very slippery with a waxy surface covering the walls of the pitcher. Further down the tube, downward-pointing hairs make retreat impossible, and in the lowest region of the tube, a pool of liquid containing digestive enzymes and wetting agents quickly drowns the prey and begins digestion. The exoskeletons are usually not digested, and over the course of the summer fill up the pitcher tube.

Only S. purpurea normally contains significant amounts of rainwater in its tubular pitchers. It is a myth that all species contain water. In fact, the hoods of the other species help to keep out rain water in addition to keeping flying prey from escaping.

S. psittacina, the parrot pitcher, uses a lobster-pot style trap that will admit prey (including tadpoles and small fish during floods) but not allow it to find its way out; and sharp inward-pointing hairs force the victim gradually down to the base of the pitcher where it is digested. -Wikipedia

The insects are attracted by a nectar-like secretion on the lip of pitchers, as well as a combination of color and scent. Slippery footing at the pitchers' rim, aided in at least one species by a narcotic drug lacing the nectar, causes insects to fall inside, where they die and are digested by the plant as a nutrient source.

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