Common Name: PITCHER-PLANT FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb, generally from slender rhizome, short caudex, or stolon; carnivorous; roots poorly developed. Leaf: in basal rosette, prostrate to erect, each forming a tubular pitcher with fluid that digests captured prey by enzymes, bacteria, or other organisms, with stiff, reflexed hairs within. Inflorescence: scapose, flower generally 1. Flower: bisexual, radial, nodding; sepals 5 [4--6], generally free; petals 5 [0]; stamens many; pistil 1, ovary superior, chambers generally 5, incomplete above or not, placentas generally axile, style 1, 5-lobed, umbrella-like or not, stigma terminal or under tips of style lobes. Fruit: capsule, loculicidal; valves generally 5. Seed: many, flattened-ovoid, smooth, or club-like, papillate [winged].
Genera In Family: 3 genera, 24 species: northern California, Oregon, British Columbia, eastern North America, northern South America, especially acidic bogs, streamsides, moist areas; often planted outside native ranges by horticulturists but generally not invasive.
eFlora Treatment Author: Barry A. Rice
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: PITCHER-PLANT
Leaf: pitcher top generally with vertical or overhanging lid [top dome-like, without glassy-transparent windows, only in Sarracenia psittacina and its hybrids], opening generally upward, tube with digestive fluids within. Flower: sepals, petals 5; ovary chambers 5, style tip umbrella-like, peltate.
Etymology: (Michel S. Sarrazin, Quebec physician, naturalist, 1659--1735) Note: Many species, hybrids (traits intermediate) planted in northern California (Mendocino, Del Norte cos.; expected elsewhere), proliferating slowly if at all.