Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 12/10/2010

Question
As simple as it sounds... The fluids in both Sarracenia and in Nepenthes is it produced by the plant? That is do they produce it or do I fill them up with water?
I ask because some of my pitchers seem full and others completly empty of anything. My plants are outdoors but in a covered area and rain does not get to them, they are watered by hand. The Sarrcenia watered from below and the Nepenthes from top.
Thank you

Answer
Hi Peter,

It's a bit of a mix, and it depends on the individual species.  Nepenthes mostly produce their own fluid, but varieties with open pitchers such as N. ampullaria fill with rainwater.  All of them get some rainwater in them.

Sarracenia in contrast vary greatly.  Trumpet varieties, especially those with more enclosed pitchers only produce their own fluid.  I've noticed in S. flava that even if they get rainwater in them, they excrete some of it; probably to minimize pitcher weight and toppling.  I remember as a child seeing silly pictures in books that showed flavas with water in them, so when I got my first one I put water in it.  After a couple of days the water would disappear.  To this day I still get folks coming to the Portland Saturday Market looking in trumpet pitcher leaves wondering where the water is having seen those same silly pictures  S. purpurea in contrast, relies on the rainwater, and can't really catch insects without it.  S. psittacina is the oddball in that it is like a lobster trap.  It experiences flooding during the winter and catches aquatic insects with the thick mesh of backward pointing hairs in the pitcher.  They catch little during the summer.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com