SARRACENIACEAE PITCHER PLANT FAMILY 
PITCHER PLANT. HUNTSMAN’S CUP 
Sarracenia purpurea L. 
This lone Pitcher Plant of the north is found throughout 
the Great Lakes region, eastern Canada and the northwestern 
states, and in Illinois the northern peat bogs. It produces a 
rosette of pitcher-shaped 
leaves which may be en- a 
tirely green but more often 
are streaked with red or 
purple. These curious 
leaves are usually partly 
filled with water and 
trapped insects, the prod- 
uct of whose decay the 
plant absorbs and uses as 
part of its food supply. 
Entrance’ § to ‘the 
pitchers is easy and in- 
sects often go in, perhaps 
merely by chance or per- 
haps attracted by the 
bright colors. Egress, 
however, is almost im- 
possible because the ye 
rounded arching hood a 
the upper end of the Ne 
pitcher is lined inside with 
numerous short hairs which point downward. Most of the in- 
sects sooner or later get into the water and drown. On the other 
hand, several kinds of insects live or breed in the water in these 
pitchers. 
The nodding flowers, which appear on 1-2-foot scapes in June, 
are deep purple, nearly globose and 2 inches or more in diameter. 
Each consists of 5 sepals, which remain while the fruit matures, 
5 incurved obovate petals, numerous stamens and a pistil which 
has a §-celled ovary, 1 short yellowish style and a broad um- 
brella-shaped summit with ¢ little hooked stigmas. Beneath the 
calyx are § little bracts colored like the sepals. 
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