Sarracenia flava

A tall trumpet with a pinched neck

Flora of North America (FNA) gives Sarracenia flava erect pitchers 25 to 90 cm tall, occasionally to 1 m, growing from rhizomes 1 to 2.5 cm thick that form dense clumps ^[2]. The mouth is 2 to 7 cm across. Above it the hood is nearly round, 3 to 10 cm long and up to 14 cm wide, with its two basal lobes bent back so far that they almost touch behind the narrowed neck. A thin point (the apiculum) of 3 to 12 mm, sometimes up to 18 mm, hangs from the hood tip ^[2].

Color varies more than shape. Typical plants are yellowish green with a dark red blotch inside the neck and red veins on the upper tube and hood, but some are suffused bronze or purplish red all over ^[2]. The plant produces one main flush of pitchers in spring and early summer, then two to five flat, upright, non-pitcher leaves (phyllodia) 12 to 30 cm long. The pitchers wither in winter but stay attached ^{[2, 6]}.

Three yellow-flowered relatives can look similar. FNA separates them by the hood ^[6]:

• S. oreophila: hood lobes bent back but never touching, an apiculum of only 1 to 2 mm, and sickle-shaped phyllodia 5 to 18 cm long that lie on the ground or arch upward.
• S. alata: an ovate hood with no narrowed neck, and usually no phyllodia.
• S. minor: a hood that arches tightly over the mouth, with white windows on the back of the pitcher.

Flowers before pitchers

In the wild S. flava flowers in March and April, and the first pitchers appear after the first flowers ^[2]. The flowers are large, with yellow petals 5 to 8.5 cm long and a style disc 6 to 8 cm across, held on stalks 15 to 60 cm tall. That is shorter than the pitchers that grow up around them later. FNA describes their scent as strongly unpleasant ^[2]. Further north the season is later: in the in-ground bog of a past ICPS president in Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula, rated zone 6B, S. flava blooms in mid-May ^[7].

If you want seed, avoid crossing a plant with its own pollen. The ICPS seed guide says self-pollination is a known problem in S. flava, giving lower seed viability and more runt seedlings ^[8].

Seven named varieties

Most of the variation in S. flava is in the amount and pattern of red pigment. In a 1998 Carnivorous Plant Newsletter article, Donald Schnell recognized seven varieties and treated the in-between plants as hybrids, backcrosses or environmental forms ^[9]:

WCVP does not accept these varieties as separate taxa and lists the variety names as synonyms of S. flava ^[1]. FNA mentions that at least seven varieties have been named without treating them separately ^[2]. For buyers, a variety label describes a color pattern, and look-alike hybrids exist. The ICPS guide shows an orange-flowered complex hybrid that people confuse with var. ornata or var. rubricorpora, depending on how dark its tubes color in a given year. It also notes that var. atropurpurea lids open red, while lids that open green and redden later suggest var. rubricorpora or a hybrid ^[5].

Habitat, decline and wild hybrids

S. flava grows on the southeastern coastal plain in wet pine savannas and flatwoods, peat-based Carolina bays, pond-cypress swamps and pineland seepage slopes, from sea level to about 300 m ^[2]. It once formed large stands but has become much less common as wetlands were drained and land use changed ^[2]. NatureServe still ranks the species secure overall (G5). It is critically imperiled at the northern end of its range in Virginia and vulnerable in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia ^[3]. IUCN has also assessed it for the Red List; see its Red List assessment ^[10].

Where it meets other species, it hybridizes. FNA lists wild hybrids with S. purpurea (S. ×catesbaei, one of the most widespread), S. minor (S. ×harperi), S. leucophylla (S. ×moorei), S. rosea (S. ×naczii) and S. rubra (S. ×popei) ^[11]. Outside its native range it has naturalized in Washington state, and WCVP also records it as introduced in Austria, France, Great Britain and Maryland ^{[2, 1]}.

Growing it

The basics are those of the genus: full sun, low-mineral water and a peat-based mix. The ICPS guide recommends pots 16 to 20 cm (6 to 8 in) wide for mature plants, standing in 4 to 6 cm of water ^[5]. See water for carnivorous plants for how to check your supply.

S. flava is one of the hardier species. ICPS lists it among the Carolina plants suitable for USDA zone 6 when grown in an in-ground bog that is heavily mulched or covered with row cover in winter ^[5]. The Ontario bog mentioned above is buried under 20 cm or more of pine needles from December to March ^[7]. The bog garden guide covers construction.

Trim only the brown parts of old pitchers. The plant pulls nutrients back from old green leaves before new growth, and cutting green leaves can starve a plant with a small rhizome ^[5]. Height is the main obstacle indoors: ICPS says tall species are hard to grow under lights unless mirrors or reflective material send light to the sides of the pitchers ^[5].

For propagation, divide crowded clumps just before spring growth. Raise seed after cold stratification, which the ICPS seed guide puts at four weeks for most Sarracenia ^[8]. Growers disappointed with var. atropurpurea can raise their own all-red hybrids from seed, the same guide suggests ^[8].