Question
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brandonbebout/sets/72157617933504160/

Hiya,

I had a few questions. First of all, I bought all my plants at local retailer in cubes. I bought the tall Serracenia last year as well as a VFT and they are both still alive, woohoo!
It as well as the other Serracenia were both "purple pitcher" plants, and yet they are totally different. I was hoping you could identify them for me, as well as the Butterwort and the Nepenthes. I appreciate it!

Also I was concerned about my new Butterwort and its ability to trap prey, it doesn't seem to be able to catch little ants.

And lastly, the pictures on the close up of the tall Serracenia, you can see the hood dying. I'm not sure what's causing it I was hoping you could.

Thanks so much,

Brandon

Answer
Hello Brandon,

I am not as conversant with Butterworts as some of the other plants yet, however; yours looks to be a Pinguicula medusina, a Mexican Butterwort. I have a hybrid of that plant that looks similar, though with shorter leaves.

Your short North American Pitcher Plant with the curved, wide leaves and open hoods is indeed a Purple Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia purpurea or hybrid thereof. It will need incredible amounts of direct sunlight outside or a larger number of 40 watt florescent shop lights up to 12000 to 24000 lumens intensity with additional window light to even survive.

The tall, thin North American Pitcher Plant is not a Sarracenia purpurea at all, though it looks to be a hybrid of the Purple Pitcher Plant and possibly a Sarracenia rubra or similar Sarracenia species. There are many hybrids and they all can be confusing to identify sometimes. In any event, the new leaf growing in on the plant is thinner and twisted in shape as it it suffering from light deprivation. Being grown indoors, it is simply not getting the light it requires, direct sunlight of at least 24000 lumens, and is weakening and producing deformed leaves.

The reason it was labelled as a S. purpurea is that the supplier of the store simply did not know what species they were growing or mislabeled by accident. Such suppliers tend not to care if the plants they ship survive, knowing that the stores they supply them to will place them all with the tropicals in heavy shade and let them dry out and die with no water. They often print ridiculous instructions that inform the buyer to place the plant in indirect light and to fertilize it, both of which will kill the plants over time.

Your Nepenthes is a bit young as of now, they can grow several feet, or even meters tall or long as their vines extend, however; I would say it looks to be a young N. sanguinea or N. ventricosa by its leaf structure and pitcher coloration. Let it grow for another 6 months to a year and it will be more easily identified as its pitchers and coloration mature.

Your Butterwort did not evolve to trap ants specifically. Ants are very strong and can often escape Butterworts and even Sundews. Butterworts evolved to lure and trap tiny flying insects like gnats, fruit flies, and even mosquitos.

Christopher