SOUTHERN PITCHERPLANT 



Sarracenia purpurea venosa (Rafinesque) Wherry 



Southern pitcherplant occurs in swamps, bogs, and wet meadows in nearly every part of 

 the State of North Carolina. It probably originated in the region now constituting Henderson 

 and adjacent counties, but when this territory was uplifted, the immediate ancestors of the 

 plant were exterminated. There can be little doubt, however, that it is a remote descendant 

 from Sarracenia jonesii, which has managed to survive in the same general region, for the 

 flowers of the two are almost identical, in spite of the dissimilar leaf shape. 



In the course of time its seeds were transported down several of the eastward-flowing 

 rivers, forming colonies on the Piedmont and ultimately on the newly emerging Coastal Plain. 

 Some seeds also found their way down the Chattahoochee River system, and an extensive 

 series of colonies developed near the coast on either side of this valley. In addition, unlike other 

 species, it migrated from northeastern North Carolina to southern New Jersey, over a strip of 

 land which apparently connected these States during Tertiary and early glacial times. 



