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Sarracenia purpurea veining patterns.

Wire Man

Sphagnum Guru
So, after working with CPs all summer I started to notice some things about them that hasn't been documented before. I'm an artist, so I cue in on visuals very quickly. After staring at an S. purpurea leaf for an hour or so I noticed that the veins in the hood had a noticeable pattern in their veins. This isn't any ordinary pattern, but a fractal pattern! The veins form a hexagonal shape that reduces in size, but increases in number as it approaches the edge of the hood.

After looking at some purps from New York for a while I noticed that this fractal changes. Instead of being hexagonal it's pentagonal. Since no one has been able to produce quantifiable differences between purps from up North and down South I thought this might be a break through.

Now I'm asking you guys for help. I need photos of S. purpurea hoods from as far south as Georgia all the way up to the northern most reaches of their distribution in Canada. All I need to know is their collection data (state and county). If you don't know which county it's from, that's fine, just the state will do. If you can get a photo with the hood flattened, that's even better. It'll make it easier for me to map the fractals.

Okay guys, let's see those photos.
 
A few of those photos are usable, but not many. I need photos directly from the front of the pitcher and/or behind it with the hood pulled back.
 
how close up do you need the pics and what specific locations. pics of them would help. then can photograph the exact. Have a few with location data..... Are we excluding S. rosea?
 
Something sort of like this, but with the focus point on the hood instead of the squirming stew of bugs.

Full Gut by Wire Man, on Flickr

I'd like to get a few representations from each state and Canadian provence. S. rosea would work too, since it exhibits some of the same fractals (there's a big difference with rosea fractals). What I'm going to do is draw up a mapping of the average pattern from each state.

Next up will be S. leucophylla, once I finish S. purpurea.
 
can do when I have some time at home. The one in your pic is a venosa?
 
I can get you some better shots from the place up here...I don't think any of mine are really usable but it is Keweenaw County, Michigan if any help.
 
Interesting hypothesis! How about this pic? If you like I can email you the full resolution version (7 megapixels).

5718714655_2786542a69_b.jpg


Not exactly a straight-on shot, but you can see the veining patterns quite clearly anyways.

EDIT - ah, forgot that you were looking for location data. This one is from a Lowes death cube - if the source of the material that Lowes vendors use for TC is known, then that would be your location data. Otherwise... ???
 
Not the greatest shots for what you are looking for but let me know if any of these help (6.1MP). They are all from Oakland County Michigan.
 
  • #10
Some of those might be usable. Keep them coming guys!
 
  • #11
I klutzed and broke off a pitcher while repotting and dividing the S. purpurea ssp venosa var burkii "Crestview, FL". It was an "inner" pitcher so not much color. I stuck in the scanner. Instant herbarium specimen. Click on them for higher resolution images.

scan0003.jpg

scan0004.jpg
 
  • #13
Nan, that's pretty much exactly what I'm looking for! See the fractals? The inner hood is almost exactly the same as the outer hood. Mass, where is that one originally from?
 
  • #14
Yeah, I never noticed the physical cellular "tiling" pattern that the veins follows before. Neat. Maybe I'll sacrifice a few pitchers from some of my other plants. Easier than setting up the tripod since I have no "assistant" to pull back the hood while I operate the camera.
 
  • #15
That would be awesome, especially since the growing season is almost over! It might help if you cut them open so nothing overlaps the pattern. I can't wait to try this with a Chesterfield purp and their crazy exaggerated hoods.
 
  • #16
Here are some from WI, not sure how useful they are. I was actually semi-planning on hiking a bog here in WI next weekend that has 1000's of purps in it. If I do, I'll definitely get some good hood venation shots.

5070012336_2e279acde6.jpg

Washburn County


5069430985_c877e78112.jpg

Washburn County


5070015310_4d989644d0.jpg

Washburn County


6183357747_d050361a7b.jpg

Bayfield County


5086961132_71a79b435b.jpg

Bayfield County


5070018622_87e7c3959d.jpg

Bayfield County


5723877781_51b9047e18.jpg

Vilas County


5723870415_7fe84899f3.jpg

Vilas County
 
  • #17
Those look amazing! Make sure to get the hood shots, they all look different, especially from Washburn and Villas County.
 
  • #18
I did manage to visit a bog (Namekagon Fen State Natural Area, WI), although it was getting late in the day by the time I got there, so I wasn't there for too long. Here's some more pics:

6205935961_3be401a3f5.jpg


6206450524_5dc3a92218.jpg

this one didn't have much venation, but an interesting red band across the inner part


6206449844_417f150ef2.jpg


6205934723_66546a42dc.jpg


6206449046_340f69bce7.jpg


6206448520_a0510d447b.jpg


lastly, here's a shot of the area:
6206447888_39efaf9a94.jpg
 
  • #19
I need photos of S. purpurea hoods

This is a photo of the hood of my "Northern Pitcher Plant", Sarracenia purpurea var. purpurea.

No further information about the original location available.

S_purpurea_var_purpurea_pattern.jpg
 
  • #20
The Wisconsin purps are very interesting. Excellent photos guys! They're definitely useable. We've got a lot of northern purps on here, how about some southerns?
 
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