Hooded pitcherplant
By LYNN ARTZ, SANDY TEDDER and DAVID RODDENBERRY
Hooded pitcherplant (Sarracenia minor) is the most common of six pitcherplants native to Florida. Found in boggy and swampy areas, only this pitcherplant extends into central Florida. It is also distinguished by the hood that curves over each hollow tubular leaf, keeping out rainwater. Hooded pitcherplants lure insects with sweet nectar from leaf glands. Once under the hood, insects try to escape through translucent white spots, eventually falling into the slippery tube with downward hairs and into the digestive liquid at the tube bottom. Ants, flies, wasps, and bees are most often caught. In late spring, the foot-high clusters of pitchers sport large yellow down-facing flowers that are pollinated by small bees. A threatened state species, hooded pitcher plants are blooming now in the small sunken bog garden at Sopchoppy Depot Park.
