Expert: Christopher Littrell - 7/22/2009

Question
Hi. My name is Gina and I am grateful to have stumbled upon this site. My question concerns a pitcher plant that I purchased last year. I had no concept of how to care for it, so subsequently, all of the small "pitchers" have dried up and the plant is now devoid of any pitchers. Can I, and if so, how can I get this plant to produce new pitchers? And, concerning the liquid in the pitchers - is it necessary to add water to them or does the plant need any help in this area? Thank you so much for any advice.

Answer
Hello Gina,

For starters, there are several differnt geni and species of pitcher plants. It sounds like you have a Nepenthes, but first off we need to make sure. North American Sarracenias and Darlingtonia are simply pitcher shaped leaves growing directly out of the ground. Asian Pitcher Plants, called Nepenthes, grow long vines with variable shaped leaves according to species along which grow tendrils that support large colorful pitchers that hang down grom the leaf tips. There are also Heliamphora from South America that grow like Sarracenias and Australian Cephalotus that have tiny pitchers and normal looking round leaves growing from the ground in a rosette.

If you can post a picture of the plant here I may be able to identify the species and definitely can identify the genus. Once we know the genus we can proceed with more information about care since each kind of pitcher plant will have different needs.

Christopher