A nice pitcher:
While most of the Sarracenia alata
pitchers were still immature, a few precocious plants like this one had well-developed
pitchers. This is a typical sort of plant--mostly green with vertical primary veins and very few (or no) secondary
(horizontal) veins that connect the vertical ones together. I do not know what this pitcher will look like in a
couple of months--it may stay pale, it may get more veins, it may develop a
cut-throat look, or might even become all-red. My guess is that this plant will be a conventional, pale plant.
However, you never know; that pale orange-red flush on the pitcher tube could bode exciting coloration in this pitcher's
future.
Oh, and look, a damned fire ant on the ala, near the bottom of the photograph. They were running up and down the plant, and
every now and then they'd find my tripod legs and run up to my camera too. Even when they weren't stinging, they'd give
you the heebie jeebies. You start imagining them everywhere.
