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Sarracenia psittacina in the wild, various forms

S. psittacina forma driedndead. Charlton Co, GA site #1 The drought and extreme heat wave for many months took its toll on Sarracenia habitats. There weren't many parrot pitcher plants in this site, and of the ones that remained, they were struggling. Look at how cool those old dead pitchers look-plants from this population looked like they had fat heads:
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S. psittacina Same population as above. Looks like this one will make it, but those pitchers really got messed up. Might take a year or two of good growing conditions before this plant is back to normal.
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S. psittacina Baldwin Co, AL There were a few individuals in this spot that had really green pitchers despite receiving a decent amount of sunlight. This one doesn't appear to be AF-notice the little amounts of red pigmentation on the leaf. It could still very well have yellow flowers though-that does occur in non-antho free plants:
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S. psittacina Bay Co, FL Notice the long pitchers and the shorter pitchers. It seems as though the plants produce longer, skinnier pitchers during the spring, and the shorter, compact pitchers in the summer/fall. Plants from this population had deep red pitchers contrasted with bright white speckles:
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S. psittacina Bay Co, FL. Another example of elongated spring pitchers and shortened summer/fall pitchers:
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S. psittacina Bay Co, FL close up of summer pitcher:
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S. psittacina Liberty Co, FL The standard look, great red coloration:
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S. psittacina Liberty Co, FL. These were actually giants, but it's hard to tell in the pic. Notice how the shape of the pitcher head is slightly different than the image above. Lots of variation within similar populations:
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S. psittacina Franklin Co, FL These were hard as hell to find! The pitchers were pretty gigantic, and had a bronzy color to them. Many pitchers in this population have less white speckles than your average S. psittacina. I've seen pictures of plants in Wakula Co, FL that are very similar to these plants:
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S. psittacina Franklin Co, FL close up of the bronze pitchers. Very unique:
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S. psittacina Ware Co, GA These were big but not gigantic. I bet they were a bit smaller this year because of the drought:
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S. psittacina Ware Co, GA Close up so you can see the details of the pitcher. Compare this pitcher other populations above-see any differences?
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Very nice! Must have taken you a while to find those colonies.
 
How I love Psittacina. The variation is interesting. I like the bronzy ones, and the high red ones, and the last ones.

I've noticed these guys like it really wet as compared to other Sarracenia, which is probably why they took such a hard hit this summer.
 
Awesome! Probably my favorite Sarracenia. It's neat to be able to see wild populations and their different forms. Thank you.
 
Nice pictures, thank you for posting these. Very interesting to see the differences between various wild populations.
 
Nice shots!
 
Thanks for sharing!
 
You're welcome all! yeah, it's really a pain to find them since there's no flowers, and the grass was getting pretty tall.

The good news is that some populations, despite the drought, seem to be stable. The florida populations had 1000's of plants, whereas in Georgia, the few sites I visited only had a handfull. Of that handfull of plants, as you can see by the first and second pitcher, they were either stressed out a little or hanging in there by a limb.
 
Nice pics. Can't wait until mine gets a little more mature.
 
  • #10
Oooh, very nice!!
Is the difference of the Ware Co psittacina the little...notch at the end of the beak? :3
 
  • #11
Oooh, very nice!!
Is the difference of the Ware Co psittacina the little...notch at the end of the beak? :3

I think that's one of the differences. Many of the other clones have more rounded beaks. In addition, the parrot 'heads" on some clones-for example, the first picture of the dead plant-are really big relative to the entire leaf. There's also a varying degree of white speckles-check out the amount of white in the Bay Co, FL pic versus the Franklin Co, FL pic. Lastly, the other clear difference is color-some are really red, others are yellowish, and there are even non-AF green ones. This might be genetic as opposed to environmental because the really red and really green plants were growing in similar light levels/conditions.


Wireman-That's a very interesting observation. In cultivation, if I submerged them too deep, they tend to rot. Interestingly enough, some of the biggest plants in the wild are found in semi-aquatic situations. Perhaps when the traps are under water, they're able to catch more prey-it almost seems like the traps are pretty ineffective when not in water.

I opened up an older pitcher from one of the plants, and didn't find any insects in it. It would be interesting to see what the aquatic ones are catching-didn't get a chance to see any of those....
 
  • #12
Wow, fantastic photos and plants. Quite a shot from Ware Co. GA. I like the sand accumulation (Is that a fire ant mound?) and how it's stll on the pitchers there. Beautiful plants.
 
  • #13
Mine doubled in size after I partially submerged it (accidentally). It's a 10 year old plant, and it was maybe about 2.5 inches across when I took it home. It's now about 5 inches wide and very colorful. I've noticed their leaves dry very well, probably because of their low capture rate.

Have you seen the psitts in Marion County and the snadhills of Georgia? They're massive!!! They also grow floating in water, or nearly doing so. Brad Wilson has taken some excellent photos of them.
 
  • #14
wow great pictures, those plants have some awesome color, thanks for sharing
 
  • #15
DroseraBug-not sure what sort of animal made the mound. The main insects I remeber were ticks (it was horrifying!) and mosquitos, which were also horrifying. it looked like I had chicken pox after the entire trip!

Wireman-yeah, saw Brad Wilson's pics on Flickr-those were definitely amazing! It looks like some of those plants were submerged in water temporarily-maybe during the rainy season, and then as it dries up, they hang out on the banks. It would be nice to see them in the wild, but I think those locations are all kept a secret, and I respect that. However, since they are on private property, it would be nice if the land owners put seeds into circulation to back up those populations in cultivation in case anything happens.

Monkeycup-pleasure to share them!
-Mike
 
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