Pitcher Plant

Pitcher Plant Earl Plato


I couldn’t believe it. I had in my hand a T-shirt and embossed on the front was a flowering Pitcher plant. It is the provincial flower of the province of Newfoundland! Wife, Elaine, took a photo of a group of them while on a nature walk in Gros Morne National Park. Yes, I bought the shirt.
*** My mentor, the late naturalist Bert Miller, had taken us to Wainfleet Bog. I was only a child as he showed us the unusual plant. Not too many years ago former area naturalist, Ernie Giles, lead us to that same area in the marsh. No luck. No Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia purpurea). This curious plant is found in Ontario in bogs, swamps, marshes and wet lands generally. With the systematic draining of Wainfleet marsh over the past decades the plant has not survived unless you know otherwise. Its name comes from the strange shape of the fleshy leaves that are hollowed like narrow, curving pitchers with a large pouring lip that might easily serve as a handle. The Pitcher plant is a meat-eater like the Venus Fly-trap and Sundew plants. The unlucky insect that crawls into the hollow leaves of the Pitcher Plant are unable to extricate themselves, The backward-pointing stiff hairs that line the inside of the leaves prevent any upward movement. The insect eventually dies and falls to the bottom into the water held by the leaves. As time passes the insect is absorbed as food for the Pitcher Plant. I am told the full diet of this plant is varied as its roots find nourishment in the ground. Want a challenge? Explore Wainfleet Marsh and look for meat-eating plants including the Pitcher Plant. Good luck!
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On our ten day trip through Newfoundland recently we saw several pitcher plants but only one lonely ice berg, 12 moose, several humpback whales, and thousands of puffins. The “Rock” is a great place to visit.