Post by acalvin on Oct 6, 2022 12:01:36 GMT -5
I made a few figures in order to visualize the range of the Sarracenia species & subspecies. I initially tried to get everything on one map, but as you could imaging it gets cluttered very quickly. Separating it into clades turned out to work well. The rubra and purpurea clade were the easiest. The flava clade was trickier because S. flava, S. psittacina, and S. minor overlap so much throughout the range that the map just looks like a brown blob. I ended up giving S. flava its own map.
I'm welcome to any comments if I've missed something or got any details wrong.
The rubra clade - this is the most complicated clade of the Sarracenia. It contains easily recognizable species like S. leucophylla, but also a lot of species/subspecies that are a bit more hard to tell apart like S. gulfensis and S. wherryi. Also note that for space, I'm labelling the taxa by the most specific description. For example S. rubra ssp. alabamensis/S. alabamensis ssp. alabamensis is simply labelled S. alabamensis on the map. I leave it to you to use your own personal preferences & imagination to decide what you want to call it.
There are a few notes here:
1. S. oreophila has a very fragmented range. Only the plants along the counties at the GA/NC border and AL still exist in the wild. The report from TN is documented, and the one from KY is from an observation from a carnivorous plant enthusiast many decades ago. Some credible sources still maintain this species was present in the fall line of GA and possibly AL alongside S. alabamensis
2. S. leucophylla has a mostly continuous range along the Gulf Coast. It's mostly extirpated in GA except for the population very far inland. It's very close to the Fall Line Sandhills rubra.
3. I've split S. alata into West and East varieties because they have such disparate ranges, but since alata is so diverse it's hard to say whether a distinction really warranted. I just wanted to highlight the gap along the Mississippi River here.
4. The Fall Line Sandhills (FLS or "ancestral") rubra is an isolated population near the Fall Line in GA. These populations grow in whitecedar swamps along the Flint/Chattahoochee River drainages. The Chattahoochee (named Apalachicola in FL) forms the border of GA/AL and ultimately flows into the Gulf of Mexico.
The purpurea clade is comparatively simple but there is still intense debate over the distinction of S. purpurea ssp purpurea & S. purpurea ssp venosa. The latter grows in the Southeast Atlantic coastal plain, while the former grows from New England north and west into Canada. They overlap in the mid-Atlantic states where they grow in whitecedar swamps and bogs. I'm reserving judgement, but will say that this taxa is a highly variable species throughout its range. In the southern portion, it shares habitat with S. flava and S. rubra ssp. rubra. This "holy trinity" of Atlantic Coast pitcherplants grow pretty far inland; approaching the fall line in the Carolinas where they can sometimes be found along whitecedar creeks like the "ancestral" rubras in GA. They are more well known from flytrap sites in Coastal North Carolina though.
S. rosea is confined to the Gulf coastal plain and has been extirpated in GA where it used to grow as far east as Tifton, GA. S. montana is not a species but my shorthand for S. purpurea ssp venosa var. montana that grows in the Southern Appalachians. That particular region where it overlaps with S. jonesii is classified as a temperate rainforest. Climate change is really threatening the rain patterns in this sensitive habitat.
S. minor and S. psittacina are fairly similar being small plants with light holes in the back to lure prey into the small pitcher opening. S. minor doesn't grow west of the Apalachicola river and is rare in the Panhandle. It also grows as far north as North Carolina where it does share habitat with flytraps. It is most commonly encountered in Southern GA where it is occasionally seen growing alongside roadways. Unfortunately I can think of a few locations completely destroyed in the past couple years. It is also the only pitcherplant that grows into peninsular Florida - as far south as Okeechobee. That area is almost tropical, with several epiphytic orchid and bromeliad species. The taller S. minor var. okefenokeensis is confined to the Okefenokee Swamp.
S. psittacina is mostly found along the Gulf coastal plain. It grows in isolated locations in Southern GA. For example, some nearly pristine bogs in Brooks County, GA have S. flava & S. minor but to my knowledge, no sign of any S. psittacina. It's found just north in Colquitt County though. I've never seen it in Lowndes, but some S. minor look a lot like a S. × formosa backcross. It could be that this species is just more sensitive to habitat alteration, or could just naturally have a spotty range. Note the disjunct population in Marion County, GA where it grows with the "ancestral" rubras and one county over from the disjunct S. leucophylla. It would be amazing to see that spot a few thousand years ago!
S. flava : I have a few color varieties noted, though I don't mean to imply only var. cuprea and var. ornata are confined to the Carolinas for example. That said, var. rugelii is the only variety in Southern GA with a couple exceptions. For example, the var. ornata from Bulloch County once grew at the extreme Southeast tip of the state where it overlapped in range with S. purpurea. S. flava var. rubricorpera famously grows in the Apalachicola National Forest and Blackwater Forest. Although I've also seen var. ornata and some with slightly coppery lids. These do look slightly different in the veining & color than the respective varieties encountered in the Carolinas. To my knowledge var. maxima is only found in the Carolinas, where var. rugelii is not. The variety designation is slightly subjective and I don't want to focus too much on that in the figure, other than to point out that S. flava is a highly diverse species.
I'm welcome to any comments if I've missed something or got any details wrong.
The rubra clade - this is the most complicated clade of the Sarracenia. It contains easily recognizable species like S. leucophylla, but also a lot of species/subspecies that are a bit more hard to tell apart like S. gulfensis and S. wherryi. Also note that for space, I'm labelling the taxa by the most specific description. For example S. rubra ssp. alabamensis/S. alabamensis ssp. alabamensis is simply labelled S. alabamensis on the map. I leave it to you to use your own personal preferences & imagination to decide what you want to call it.
There are a few notes here:
1. S. oreophila has a very fragmented range. Only the plants along the counties at the GA/NC border and AL still exist in the wild. The report from TN is documented, and the one from KY is from an observation from a carnivorous plant enthusiast many decades ago. Some credible sources still maintain this species was present in the fall line of GA and possibly AL alongside S. alabamensis
2. S. leucophylla has a mostly continuous range along the Gulf Coast. It's mostly extirpated in GA except for the population very far inland. It's very close to the Fall Line Sandhills rubra.
3. I've split S. alata into West and East varieties because they have such disparate ranges, but since alata is so diverse it's hard to say whether a distinction really warranted. I just wanted to highlight the gap along the Mississippi River here.
4. The Fall Line Sandhills (FLS or "ancestral") rubra is an isolated population near the Fall Line in GA. These populations grow in whitecedar swamps along the Flint/Chattahoochee River drainages. The Chattahoochee (named Apalachicola in FL) forms the border of GA/AL and ultimately flows into the Gulf of Mexico.
The purpurea clade is comparatively simple but there is still intense debate over the distinction of S. purpurea ssp purpurea & S. purpurea ssp venosa. The latter grows in the Southeast Atlantic coastal plain, while the former grows from New England north and west into Canada. They overlap in the mid-Atlantic states where they grow in whitecedar swamps and bogs. I'm reserving judgement, but will say that this taxa is a highly variable species throughout its range. In the southern portion, it shares habitat with S. flava and S. rubra ssp. rubra. This "holy trinity" of Atlantic Coast pitcherplants grow pretty far inland; approaching the fall line in the Carolinas where they can sometimes be found along whitecedar creeks like the "ancestral" rubras in GA. They are more well known from flytrap sites in Coastal North Carolina though.
S. rosea is confined to the Gulf coastal plain and has been extirpated in GA where it used to grow as far east as Tifton, GA. S. montana is not a species but my shorthand for S. purpurea ssp venosa var. montana that grows in the Southern Appalachians. That particular region where it overlaps with S. jonesii is classified as a temperate rainforest. Climate change is really threatening the rain patterns in this sensitive habitat.
S. minor and S. psittacina are fairly similar being small plants with light holes in the back to lure prey into the small pitcher opening. S. minor doesn't grow west of the Apalachicola river and is rare in the Panhandle. It also grows as far north as North Carolina where it does share habitat with flytraps. It is most commonly encountered in Southern GA where it is occasionally seen growing alongside roadways. Unfortunately I can think of a few locations completely destroyed in the past couple years. It is also the only pitcherplant that grows into peninsular Florida - as far south as Okeechobee. That area is almost tropical, with several epiphytic orchid and bromeliad species. The taller S. minor var. okefenokeensis is confined to the Okefenokee Swamp.
S. psittacina is mostly found along the Gulf coastal plain. It grows in isolated locations in Southern GA. For example, some nearly pristine bogs in Brooks County, GA have S. flava & S. minor but to my knowledge, no sign of any S. psittacina. It's found just north in Colquitt County though. I've never seen it in Lowndes, but some S. minor look a lot like a S. × formosa backcross. It could be that this species is just more sensitive to habitat alteration, or could just naturally have a spotty range. Note the disjunct population in Marion County, GA where it grows with the "ancestral" rubras and one county over from the disjunct S. leucophylla. It would be amazing to see that spot a few thousand years ago!
S. flava : I have a few color varieties noted, though I don't mean to imply only var. cuprea and var. ornata are confined to the Carolinas for example. That said, var. rugelii is the only variety in Southern GA with a couple exceptions. For example, the var. ornata from Bulloch County once grew at the extreme Southeast tip of the state where it overlapped in range with S. purpurea. S. flava var. rubricorpera famously grows in the Apalachicola National Forest and Blackwater Forest. Although I've also seen var. ornata and some with slightly coppery lids. These do look slightly different in the veining & color than the respective varieties encountered in the Carolinas. To my knowledge var. maxima is only found in the Carolinas, where var. rugelii is not. The variety designation is slightly subjective and I don't want to focus too much on that in the figure, other than to point out that S. flava is a highly diverse species.