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Interesting observations on Sarracenias

S

Sarraceniaobsessed

I want to ask all of you who have Sarracenais it share your experiences with this. I noticed this a few years ago but I really was struck by it this year as the flowers began to come up. Is it me or do the flowers face south? now, not all of them do but a majority of mine do. I wonder if this is an adaptation geared towards bees and their navigation systems using the sun for orientation. just another interesting observation.

On the recent freezing temps:

Here in Atlanta for the past three weeks or so we have enjoyed temps in the 80s and lows in the 50s and 60s, very unseasonable! This brought the plants on like gang busters. Per usual the flavas and alatas are the first to start to flower. Then we get word that the temps will drop into the 20s last wekend!!!! Friday night was 28, Sat. night was to be 24 and Sun. was to be 35. I paniced. With too many plants to haul in and seemable no way to cover all of them I was in a panic. I had to choose, what a tough choice. I bought 300yards of frost cloth at Home Depot and went to work. The plants were taken off the water tables and placed on the ground and then the table was wrapped with the frost cloth.

Here is what I found; most all of the plants under frost cloth were protected with the exception of where the frost cloth was very close to the newly emerged pitched and open flower buds. The most interesting thing was what happened to the plants that did not get any protection. Of course the open flowers and almost open pitchers were fried, however the buds and pitchers just coming up were untouched even at 24. It would seem that these plants have built in protection against last frosts to a certain extent. I thought I would share this info with other growers.

Brooks
 
All my flowers point towards the sun lol ...
 
Brooks-
Interesting. My pots are against the south side of my house (only because that is where my patio is located) and therefore the buds do lean south (but would they if they were on another side?). My NJ plants are not as far along, but the emerging buds and water surface has had ice on them this past week with no problem.

Remember that water naturally gives off a lot of heat as it freezes. Therefore, spraying the plants with water at night can help them survive light freezes. Fruit/veggie growers use this trick for early fall or late Spring freezes.
 
Sarraceniaobsessed said:
I want to ask all of you who have Sarracenais it share your experiences with this. I noticed this a few years ago but I really was struck by it this year as the flowers began to come up. Is it me or do the flowers face south? now, not all of them do but a majority of mine do. I wonder if this is an adaptation geared towards bees and their navigation systems using the sun for orientation. just another interesting observation.

Brooks
Click to expand...

I have noticed that with my Sarrs too. I clipped off most of the flower buds this season, but the few I did allow to flower all face south.

Steve
 
All mine did point southeast until they froze :(
 
buds and pitchers just coming up were untouched even at 24.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I assume the waxiness of young pitchers and the firmness of mature pitchers offer protection. It's the soft ones in the middle that are just opening that are in danger I suppose.
 
Most of mine were turned to the southeast to the southwest. I think ones that arose on the east, south, or west side did this. The ones that arose on the north side of the plant faced east mostly. But it's difficult to be very accurate with this as I have rotated them a few times recently.

I've noticed that before. I always thought it was due to the light being strongest from the south this time of year.
 
Yes, the flowers will always point in the direction of the light. For us, it's west, or southwest.
 
On both my Sarracenia leucophylla four of the five flowers on each plant (10 flowers total) pointed SW the others pointed 45-90degrees (S-E). They only get sun from the west being on a west facing balcony.

The S. flava and S. 'tarnok' had been moved several times to minimize wind damage so I did not include them in this observation
 
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  • #10
It's a Beatles thing.... "I'll follow the sun". Actually, the flowers and stems seem to bend toward whatever light source they have. I have had window sill P. primuliflora flowers face the sun and when I turned the pot, they repositioned themselves. Same with the utric flowers that are in my closet, under articial lighting.
 
  • #11
jimscott said:
It's a Beatles thing.... "I'll follow the sun". Actually, the flowers and stems seem to bend toward whatever light source they have. I have had window sill P. primuliflora flowers face the sun and when I turned the pot, they repositioned themselves. Same with the utric flowers that are in my closet, under articial lighting.
Click to expand...


Agreed! The effect is called Phototropism.

Tom
 
  • #12
Interesting,

When I got my S. oreophila x leucophylla, the pitcher seemed to bend, it's going towards a different light source now, and my Dionaea also went towards their light source, interesting.

I also just noticed I have the same post count as the above poster. Intriguing.
 
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