Image - Flickr / incidencematrix
La sarracenia purpurea It is one of the most commonly seen carnivorous plant species in nurseries, making it one of the most common. And the reasons are not lacking: it does not grow as much as others, it resists the cold better and the color of its traps is really beautiful.
But as if that were not enough, their care is very simple; in fact, I would dare to assure that anyone, regardless of their experience caring for plants, will be able to maintain this carnivore for many, many years. If you do not believe me, then I'm going to present it to you 🙂.
Origin and characteristics
Our protagonist is a rhizomatous carnivore from, as you can see in the image, North America. Specifically, we will see it in eastern and southern Canada, and on the eastern coast of the United States. It belongs to the genus of Sarracenia. Grows to a height of 20, perhaps 30cm tall at most, developing pitcher-shaped trap leaves inside which water accumulates.
These traps, when we see them inside, we will immediately realize that they have very short hairs that point downwards. This serves so that any small insects, be they flies, ants, bees, etc., slip and fall into the pond, where they will drown. The digestive enzymes of the sarracenia purpurea, produced by the new leaves, together with the bacteria that live inside them, are in charge of digesting them.
Towards spring-summer it produces purple flowers that sprout from a »long» flower stalk, measuring about 30cm.
Subspecies
There are several, and yet experts have not been able to determine exactly how many there are. However, in general lines we can affirm that there are the following:
- Sarracenia purpurea subsp. purple: It is native to northern New Jersey.
- Sarracenia purpurea subsp. purple f. heterophylla
- Sarracenia purpurea subsp. purpurea f. ruffle
- Sarracenia purpurea subsp. venous: It is native to the east coast of the United States.
- Sarracenia purpurea subsp. venous var. burkii (known as sarracenia rosea)
- Sarracenia purpurea subsp. venous var. burkii f. luteola
- Sarracenia purpurea subsp. venous var. Mountain
- Sarracenia purpurea subsp. venous var. burkii (known as sarracenia rosea)
What are the care you need?
If you want to have a copy, we recommend that you provide it with the following care:
Location
It is a plant that has to be outside, in full sun. In semi-shade it could be as long as it received a minimum of 4-5 hours of direct sunlight, since otherwise it would not have a good development and its health would be weakened.
Earth
Unless we are in their places of origin and we have a garden land that is blond peat, we will have to plant it in plastic pots (Do not use the clay ones since these, as they are watered, release minerals that do not do any good to the sarracenia purpurea).
As a substrate it is advisable to use that, blond peat, but mixed with perlite (you can find for sale this mixture already prepared here).
Irrigation
Very frequent. This is a carnivore that lives in swampy areas, so you have to water very often. In fact, it is highly advisable to put a plate under it and fill it up as it becomes empty.
Of course, important: use rainwater, osmosis or distilled; the air conditioning also works. If you use others, you would run the risk of losing it since they contain minerals that, little by little, damage the roots.
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Image - Wikimedia / Cefas
Do not fertilize carnivorous plants. They feed on the insects they catch, so it is essential to grow them outdoors.
Transplant
Transplant your sarracenia purpurea in spring, every two or three years, since it has a great tendency to remove new leaves-traps from its rhizomes.
Multiplication
It multiplies by seeds and by division of rhizomes in spring-summer. Let's see what is the step by step:
Seeds
In order to obtain new specimens of this species, its seeds must be sown in seedbeds that have blond peat mixed with perlite in equal parts, and keep it outside, always humid. Thus, the first ones will germinate after about three or four weeks, with a temperature of about 20 degrees Celsius.
Rhizome division
It is the fastest and easiest way to obtain new copies. To do this, you have to extract the plant from the pot, immerse its roots in water - rain or distilled - to clean them, and with a previously washed and dried serrated knife, or scissors if the rhizome is rather thin, cut. In any case, as an image is worth a thousand words, I am attaching this video from the Spanish Association of Carnivorous Plants:
Pruning
You just have to remove the dried leaves and flowers.
Rusticity
It resists without problems frosts of up to -5ºC.
Does the sarracenia purpurea hibernate?
Yes. As it lives in areas where it is quite cold in winter, as an adaptation measure what it does is stop growing during those months. It may happen that, as happens to other species of Sarracenia, in areas where the climate is rather mild, with very weak frosts, it produces trap leaves that are more leaves than traps, green in color, and very small.
In this season it is also necessary to keep the substrate moist, but not flooded.
Where to buy?
They sell it in nurseries and garden stores, and here:
What did you think of this plant?