More mondo leaves!
Here is a final view of the gigantor pitchers. Isn't the lack of fenestrations odd?
In all sincerity, I find this plant vaguely disquieting. It didn't seem natural. It was vaguely unsettling, rather
like the way that world record pumpkins look wrong.
(Here are the same pitchers with a vertical composition.)
By the way, these pitchers were about 5.5 cm long (2.2 inches) tall; of course, that's not leaf length, that is the
depth of inflated pitcher heads, from front to back. And it wasn't just one or two of the leaves that were this large;
they were all grossly bloated.
Oh....my....god....
And here is proof of my wild claims.
By the way, I did not collect this plant, but I do have these photographs.
Maybe if I had collection permits, I might have taken one of the crowns of this plant, but I didn't, so I didn't.
There were many other
Sarracenia psittacina plants
in the neighborhood, but none had the grotesquely enormous characteristics.
After this wonderful discovery, we turned and hiked the long hot path back to the car. On the way back, I started
feeling that uncomfortable, slightly euphoric sensation that accompanies heat exhaustion.
Despite drinking as much as I could,
I didn't quite shake that sense of impending illness. Fortunately, I made it back to the car
without incident.
