Perennial herbs. Basal leaves forming tubular pitchers with a small lamina at the top. Inflorescence a single terminal flower; flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, nodding. Sepals 5, more or less petaloid, with 3 small bracteoles resembling an epicalyx. Petals 5, showy. Stamens numerous. Style 1, short; stigma greatly expanded, peltate. Ovary 5-celled, with many ovules in each cell. Fruit a capsule.

Contains 3 genera and about 17 species in Atlantic North America, California and the Pakaraima Mountains in the Guiana Highlands.

Sarracenia L.

As family.

Ten species in Atlantic North America, some widely cultivated and not infrequently naturalised. Hybrids are of frequent occurrence.

McDaniel, S. (1971). The genus Sarracenia (Sarraceniaceae). Bull. Tall Timbers Research Station 9 : 1–36.

1. S. purpurea L. Purple Pitcherplant

Perennial insectivorous herb. Leaves modified into flasklike structures called pitchers which are 5–50 cm, green, shading to dark reddish-purple, or veined with reddish-purple, decumbent, sometimes curved and unequally tapering, with a wing up to about 6.5 cm wide, glabrous or hairy; mouth with a reddish-purple hood, kidney-shaped, up to 5 cm, arching over the mouth. Flowering stem up to 75 cm, dark red. Sepals 5, up to 4.0 × 3.5 cm, dark purplish- red. Petals 5, up to 7.0 × 2.5 cm, pink to dark red, rarely yellow; apical part oblong or elliptical. Stamens numerous. Style 1; disc about 5 cm wide, green or yellowish- green, 5-lobed and umbrella-shaped. Capsules with numerous seeds. Flowers 6. 2n = 26.

Introduced. Planted in wet peat bogs and well naturalised. Central Ireland, where it was established in Co. Laois by 1892; reintroduced in Roscommon in 1906 and later from there to other localities; also in a few localities in England and Scotland. Native of north-east North America; naturalised also in central Europe.