Pitcher plants of genus Sarracenia (also called American pitcher plants, or trumpet pitchers) are a carnivorous plant native to North America which use their leaves to capture insects. Each leaf forms a hollow tube, often filled with water. Insects, lured by the scent of nectar, fall in and drown, and digestive enzymes secreted by the plant break it down. These plants grow in nutrient-poor soil, and use the absorbed nutrients to help them grow. The pitchers originate from a rhizome, and die back during the winter dormancy.
There are several species of American pitcher plants, and most have tall, narrow pitchers that are vertical or nearly so. The purple pitcher plant, however, has short, squat, bulbous pitchers close to the ground, and the parrot pitcher plant has pitchers that grow horizontally.
The familySarraceniaceae, according to a recent global molecular phylogeny of angiosperms (Soltis et al.
In Sarraceniaceae, Heliamphora was reported to have extensive pit membrane remnants (Carlquist 1992a), despite the presence of relatively wide perforations in perforation plates.
Sarraceniaceae as a whole characteristically grow in bogs where standing water occurs throughout the year or in acid sands where the water table lies only a few cm below the ground surface.
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