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Description: Purple pitcherplant is a perennial, carnivorous herb with hollow evergreen leaves (pitchers) that are 5 to 45 cm in length originating from a basal rosette. The pitchers are usually sprawling or decumbent, some leaves may be ascending, and are urn-like with the tubular portion inflated distally. The pitchers are glabrous to hirsute externally and slick internally, usually with a very prominent lateral wing. The pitcher color is variable in color from nearly green with little suffused red or purplish red to variously reddish or purple-veined, to nearly uniformly purplish red (yellow in rare specimens). The hood is erect, 2 to 5 cm in length. From April to May, nodding flowers are produced on long, solitary, leafless stalks that rise well above the pitchers. The umbrella-shaped style-disk, which is a distinctive feature of the pitcherplant flower, is yellowish-green and 4 to 5 cm in diameter in this species. The sepals are purplish-red, 2 to 4 cm in length, and persist at base of the fruit. The petals are fiddle-shaped, reddish-purple to rose, and 3 to 6 cm in length. In June through July or later, a fruit (capsule) develops that is 1 to 2 cm in diameter (Patrick et. al. 1985).
Habitat:
Purple pitcherplant inhabits the Coastal Plain in seepy meadows and bogs dominated by peat moss (Sphagnum spp.), usually with other pitcher plant species such as hooded pitcher plant (Sarracenia minor) and yellow pitcher plant (sarracenia flava). The species is also found in the Blue Ridge Mountains on seepy, spahgnum mats near streams in thickets of mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) and rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum) (Patrick et. al. 1985).
Range:
Purple pitcherplant is common throughout most of Canada and parts of the northeastern U.S., but significantly rare in most of its southeastern U.S. range. Several southeastern states have passed legislation to protect native populations due to its dwindling numbers. There is a divergence between conservation status in the southeastern U.S. in comparison with the northeastern U.S. and Canada since southeastern U.S. populations are declining rapidly, but populations in the northern portion of its range are apparently secure (NatureServe 2003). In Georgia, there is only one extant colony located in the northeastern portion of the state (Patrick 2003).
References
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