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Introduction
There are only about 15 species of Sarracenia but many hybrids. They come in greens and yellows, red and white with very
lovely and unique flowers.

Catching Insects and Other Invertebrae
Pitcher plants have passive traps. The pitcher has a lid usually above the opening to the throat. Nectar, water, and colors in the plant
attract the insect. There is a covering of hairs leading into the throat. These point downward and make it difficult to go back up. At a
certain point the throat has a very slippery lip at the base of the pitcher is a pool of water and digestive fluid. In the summer a trap will
often have a large number of dead and digesting insects supplying nutrients that are missing from the acidic peat bog.

How They Grow
The Sarracenia must have a dormant period in the winter. Without this dormant period you can expect poor pitcher production
and growth the following growing season. The rhizome can be divided during this period in order to propagate the plant.
Here in zone 7 Alabama most of mine have a few old pitchers and some dead and dried. Most have "winter leaves". These
look more like leaves than pitchers. Kind of hard to describe but easy to see. Most are fairly cold hardy. Some species
are very cold hardy.

Observations
Here in Alabama these are still common in wet once you get close to the gulf coast. On vacations in the area we often visit bogs
and nurseries in the area. We took a back road a few years ago and discovered a home on several acres covered with acres of
pitcher plants. We got permission to walk thru the fields taking pictures and bending down to see little patches of colorful hybrids.
There was a lake with a couple more acres of colorful pitchers on the other side. The owners said they usually burned it off
in the winter. This is part of the natural life cycle of these plants.
We visited another bog of about an acre in size near Mobile. The owner said they burned the shrub off the place several years
and in the spring a large number of bog plants appeared. He burns off the shub each year and the bog is thriving.