Northern Pitcher Plant

Pitcher Plant Flower, Dorcas Bay Fen at Singing Sands, Ontario, June 2013

Pitcher Plant with view of the leaves from which plant gets its name, Dorcas Bay Fen, Ontario, June 2013

When I was on the Bruce Peninsula in June, we went to Singing Sands, part of Bruce Peninsula National Park.  The Sands are on the Lake Huron side of the peninsula with an expanse of beach and waters that remain very shallow far out.  Bordering the Sands are a woodland and fen where I took a short walk on a raised boardwalk and photographed some of the plants growing there.  

The National Park signs say that a fen is a wetland with some drainage, often a stream.  The Dorcas Bay Fen has much calcium in it, but is low in nitrogen.  This makes it a good habitat for plants that get their nitrogen from insects.  The pitcher plant is one of those.  Insects that are attracted to their flowers may fall into their pitcher shaped leaves or they may be attracted to the coloured lips of the leaves. There, among downward pointing hairs, they are trapped,  fall into collected water and drown.  Their nutrients are then absorbed by the plant, both by enzymes it secretes and by bacteria breaking down the animal.  Adventures of life and death at all levels in nature!

The Northern Pitcher Plant’s Latin name is Sarracenia purpurea.  Its sci-fi looking flowers are around 2″ wide and the pitcher leaves can be 4 – 12″ long.  The plant ranges in height from 8 – 24″.  (Thanks again for these details to my copy of the Audubon Wildflower Field Guide.)

Dorcas Bay Fen in Bruce Peninsula National Park, June 2013