Politely Carnivorous Pitcher Plants

I've found small colonies of Northern Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia purpurea) in out-of-the-way places in Ohio and Indiana, their locations reluctantly revealed in hushed voices in back alleys and late-night clandestine meetings, and with good reason. Several species of Pitcher Plant are classified as endangered or rare in many states. With this in mind, you might begin to imagine my speechless wonder upon discovering hundreds upon hundreds of Yellow Trumpets (S. alata) just off the interstate near the Mississippi-Alabama border. And not only were their sheer numbers amazing, but their height, more than 3' tall (Northern Pitcher Plants top out at about 2' tall), was equally mind-boggling.

Pitcher Plants (Sarraceniaceae Family) are, as we all know, carnivorous. Not slavering, lip-smacking, Aunt Bea that was some kinda good carnivorous, but politely mannered, napkin in lap, might I enquire as to the source of that piquant flavor carnivorous, effortlessly trapping their meals, digesting insects in a fashion which suggests chewing each bite 32 times. There's no burping, no undoing the button on their trousers, no slapping at the fleshy hemisphere of their bloated belly. Just quiet dining. And this makes them all the more Halloween-creepy.

Also known as Winged Pitcher Plant, Yellow Trumpets grow in wet pinelands and bogs from Alabama to eastern Texas. The erect, hollow leaves are conspicuously veined, and winged their entire length. Their greenish-yellow flowers bloom in May and June. The hollow leaves fill with water in which insects are trapped, only to drown, their soft tissues digested by the plant. It smacks of Frankenstein, the Botanist.

Northern Pitcher Plants are only half as tall as Winged Pitcher Plants, and those are the big guys. Its flowers are purplish-red, blooming from May through August. They grow in sphagnum bogs from Saskatchewan to Nova Scotia, south to Florida, west to Texas and up to Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota. Unfortunate insects attracted to Northern Pitcher Plants are prevented from escaping the inside of the hollow leaves by the downward-curving hairs which, even though they have six legs, the insects have difficulty navigating, Eventually they fall into that water which has collected at the bottom and, well, it's dinner in a five-star restaurant. Enzymes secreted by the plant do some of the digesting, but much of the tissue breakdown is the result of bacterial activity. The plant sits back, lets the bacteria do most of the work, then absorbs the nutrients, particularly nitrogenous compounds. And then it's, "Garcon. Check, please."

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