S. psittacina in the wild, Washington Co, AL

[meizwang]

The parrot pitcher plant grows in a lot of places, and their frequency in Sarracenia habitats are relatively high. With such high population numbers comes great genetic diversity, and in Washington Co, AL, there are certainly some unique and amazing looking individuals. This is the samne area where the giant "golfbalensis" parrot pitcher plant comes from, and no doubt, many of these were pretty big. Unfortunately, it seems like I didn't take too many photos of these awesome plants, probably because most of them were so hidden in the tall grasses (hindsight is 20/20!). Almost everywhere in these habitats, if you were to dig into the thick, tall grass, you'd surely find a few parrot pitcher plants in there. We probably didn't see even a fraction of what was out there, as they were hard to find. However, there were a few that were exposed in full sun.

S. psittacina in situ, Washington Co, AL. Check out the dark red colors on this plant! These were growing in a "wash" where a stream or temporary flood cleared away shrubs and brush. Notice how the substrate is mainly this powdery, white sand with a little bit of organic matter:

This isn't an example of thick grass...this is considered an "exposed" plant easily visible as you walk by:

Plants in this area had dark red colors:

My attempt to photograph a plant-these were definitely tough to capture:

Check out the beautiful the white and red veins on this trap:

This one was really neat-it was growing in some thick shrubs that probably used to be an open field many years ago:

Same clone-the white on this one was intense!

One last shot:

[jimscott]

Gotta love the in situe shots! It gives us a glimpse of the conditions we ought to be mimicking.