One of the eight species of American pitcher plants (Sarracenia) is native to Texas, Sarracenia alata, the Pale Trumpet or Texas Trumpet . The natural range of S. alata extends from Mississippi to Texas, Robertson Co. being the westernmost edge of the range, Wood Co. the northernmost, Hardin Co. the southermost. Texas accounts for most of the county records in four States for S. alata, and with East Texas having the largest concentration. They live in the post-oak savannah and the Piney Woods ecoregions.
These plants live in wet savannas, on sugarsand hillside seepage bogs,
at the edge of pristine streams with white sand-covered beds and with thick-carpets of sphagnum
covering the banks, at the edge of ponds, on a floating mattress of roots and grasses anchored to the bank,
and at one site in Hardin Co., they were growing in totally dry, deep white sand.
They occur naturally in at least Leon, Anderson, Robertson, Henderson, Angelina, Jasper, Tyler, Newton, Nacogdoches,
Smith, Hardin,Sabine, and Wood Counties, commonly side-by-side with Sundews
and other bog plants.
The trumpets are upright and can grow taller than 2.5 feet.
They are typically yellowish-green to green, with red-purple veining on the
inside of the pitcher. The pitchers have pointed lids, more flared in Texas plants, which typically
overextend the mouth of the pitcher. The lids vary from extending straight
out, parallel to the lips, to curving over the mouth and hanging below.
There
are several variations of Sarracenia alata in the South, the most stunning
and colorful occurring in the pine forests and bogs of East Texas.
There are three forms of the plant in Texas. The plants of the post-oak Counties have comparatively slender pitchers,
while the plants from the Piney Woods have a larger, more robust upper pitcher. In the Counties of Jasper, Newton, and Hardin
at certain sites only, and most but not all of the individual plants at a site, sport areolae, windows.
The windows are not as transluscent as they look on S. leucophylla or S. minor, but rather
more opaque, less obvious, but definitely, unmistakably there. The plants with
areolae tend to be significantly taller and larger than their windowless companions, with a
more bulbous upper pitcher, presumably due
to the windows confusing insects which attempt to escape from inside a pitcher, thus
tiring them and ensuring the plant more
food [3.8Mb PDF/ Acrobat Reader].
This is a true variation of Texas S. alata and not a hybrid, since the plants with windows do not display any characteristics of another Saracennia of which they might have been a cross. In addition, other pitcher plants with areolas, like S. leucophylla or S. psittaccina, are not native to Texas, and there is no population of them for hundreds of miles in any direction.
The pitchers grow up from a woody rhizome, like irises. Long,
wiry roots grow down from it. Rhizomes grow and produce new growing
points, which can later be divided. Rhizomes grow larger and longer
with time. A healthy one is crisp and white inside, like a potato.
If it is brown inside and/or squishy, it is rotten.
All the pitcher plant species have exotic, unusual-looking scented flowers,
which sit on top of a 1-2 foot tall stem. The flower of the Texas trumpet
is yellow. It starts as a small ball at the end of a stem which sprouts
out of a growing point. When the stem gets tall enough, the end with
the ball starts bending downward, and the ball growing and expanding, to finally
release the flower with five yellow petals, which hangs upside-down.
After the flower becomes pollinated by insects, the petals dry out and fall off,
the pod in the middle of the flower starts to grow, full of seed. The flower and stem become dry and,
by late September the pods burst open to reveal and let drop hundreds of seed. The seed can travel
quite far by riding the water of streams.
By late winter all the pitchers have dried out also.
Related Papers and Sites
- Eating habits of Sarracenia alata in S. Texas [3.8Mb PDF/ Acrobat Reader] by MacRoberts, MacRoberts, Gibson, Evans
Photo Gallery
Visit the bogs and savannas and Bog Tours sections for photographs of Sarracenia alata in the Texas wild.
