Sarracenia psittacina in the Wild!

Sarracenia psittacina in Florida

One of the few plants that I've seen in the wild, but haven't covered is Sarracenia psittacina. These photos, like all of my older photos, are scanned, and most were taken on a point-and-shoot film camera, so the quality is not the best. One of the things I noticed about S. psittacina when hunting it in the wild was that it's English language monkier "lobster pot" is appropriate, in the sense that it can often be found growing so close to standing water that, after a good rainstorm, it would be submerged.

S. psittacenia growing on a lakeside

In the wild, the plants almost always occur in clustered rosettes, with several growing points branching off from a central rhizome, and grow in a heavier peat mixture than is favored by most carnivores. My theory is that it evolved to grow in these locations because it is such a diminutive plant, except for the 'Okee' form, and few other plants - mostly grasses and sedges - grow in heavier, wetter soils. 

Another shot of S. psittacenia on a lakeside

Strangely, I found that S. psittacenia was more difficult to find in the wild than almost every other Sarracenia (of those that I have seen). That is probably largely due to the fact that it is so small (see above photo), but also probably has something to do with the fact that the environments it favors are somewhat less accessible. (It is much harder to walk around a mucky, floodplain with or without waders than around a savanna or bog in mere sneakers).

S. psittacenia on drier ground

Occasionally, plants could be found on drier ground. These plants would, almost certainly, be flooded during the heavy afternoon showers that often occur on the panhandle, but were slowly being edged out by succession plants. As you can see, S. psitt is fairly difficult to spot when not in flower, due to its lack of large, showy pitchers.