Green pitcher plant are found in Georgia, northeast Alabama, and southwest North Carolina; historically, plants occurred in eastern Tennessee. It grow in wet meadows, wet flatwoods, swamps, seepage slopes, sandy stream banks.
Green pitcher plant also called as Sarracenia oreophila, is a carnivorous plant of the genus Sarracenia. This species was described by Edgar Theodore Wherry in 1933.
IDENTIFY GREEN PITCHER PLANT - SARRACENIA OREOPHILLA
Green pitcher plant are found in Georgia, northeast Alabama, and southwest North Carolina; historically, plants occurred in eastern Tennessee. It grow in wet meadows, wet flatwoods, swamps, seepage slopes, sandy stream banks.
Sarracenia oreophila is a perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous with leaves modified into erect, tubular pitchers. The narrow pitcher leaves are tapered tubes that rise up to 75 cm from the ground, with a mouth 6 - 10 cm in circumference. The pitchers are greenish-yellow with noticeable fine veins, and above the pitcher a circular hood extends at an angle of roughly 180° upwards. The inside of the pitcher is hairy and heavily marked with purple veins. Many flat, curved, erect, non-pitcher leaves (phyllodia), 5 - 18 cm tall, are produced in late summer, persist through the winter, and may be more numerous than pitchers when plants are stressed.
Green pitcher plant capture and digest insects and other small animals in their pitchers. Nectar is produced by glands around the top of the pitcher, luring animals to the opening with its sweet smell. Stiff, down-pointing hairs line the pitcher, encouraging the animals to slide in and impeding their escape. Enzymes dissolved in water in the base of the pitcher digest the animals, making nutrients, particularly nitrogen, available for absorption by the plant.
Sarracenia oreophila blooms in mid - March to early June from the 45 - 70 cm tall, leafless flower stalk. The flower solitary with 5 drooping, yellow petals, 4 - 5.5 cm long; 5 yellow-green sepals; and a yellow-green, umbrella-shaped style disk in the center of the flower. Sepals and style disk persist long after the petals fall, and the fruit – a small, round, warty capsule.
Some clones and varieties: Sarracenia oreophila var. oreophila (the venation on the outer portion of the pitcher is weaker, and almost always absent from the pitcher lid); Sarracenia oreophila var. ornate (the venation is strong, reticulated, and can even be found on the pitcher lid).
GREEN PITCHER PLANT - SARRACENIA OREOPHILLA CARE AND CULTURE
Cultural information should only be used as a guide, and should be to be adapted to suit you. Your physical location; where you grow your plants, how much time you have to devote to their care, and many other factors, will need to be taken into account. Only then can you decide on the cultural methods that best suit you and your plants.
Light and temperature:
Adult Green pitcher plant enjoy sun exposure outdoors. During the summer, the plant must be outside in order to benefit from at least 6 hours of sun a day.
Sarracenia oreophila is resistant to extreme temperatures (-15 ° C) and snowfall. This plant need a dormancy period in winter of about 3-4 months. It is one of the first plants to go dormant and one of the first to emerge. If the summer was really hot, the plant can enter its dormant period in September . A cool summer will extend its growth period until October or November. The interior of a house is too hot for this plant in winter. The plant must be moved to a place where the temperature will be of the order of 2 ° C to 5 ° C. However, it does not appreciate the too intense winters and dry winds.
Substrate, growing media and repotting:
The soil should be kept moist. Grow Sarracenia oreophila in a mixture of sphagnum moss and perlite. The soil must be well drained. The use of potting soil and other fertilizers is not recommended.
Watering:
Green pitcher plant needs a permanently moist atmosphere and soil during the growing season. For the rest of the year, the soil must remain moist but not soaked as it may rot the roots. The plant does not really tolerate tap water. Distilled water or rainwater are fine. Placing a saucer containing an inch of water under the pot can be beneficial to the plant. This will provide a constant source of moisture.
Feeding:
Do not fertilize the plants. Kept outside, the plant will catch more than enough food for themselves. If you keep your plants indoors, you can feed them with dried insects every few weeks.
Propagation:
Sow directly on the soil surface, moist and not soggy. These seeds must be cold stratified for a minimum of 6 weeks. When finished, cover the top of the jar with a clear plastic bag so that the humidity stays high. Place the pot in a place where there will be strong light and keep a temperature between 21 ° to 27 ° C. When a few plants begin to grow, slowly discover the top of the pot, a little more each day, to avoid placing the seeds under the stress of a drastic change in moisture level. After cold stratification, germination takes about 1 to 3 months, but it could be more, depending on the degree of broken dormancy, do not give up.
COMMENTS