Biology Research Paper: Yellow Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia Flava) (Research Paper Sample)

Yellow Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia flava)
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Yellow Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia flava)
Abstract
The study focuses on the behavior Yellow pitcher plant in terms of feeding habit, history, habitat, taxonomy, and morphology. It further explores other areas of Yellow pitcher such as native distribution, conservation, genetics and breeding, growing, and common pest and diseases. Yellow pitcher plant belong to plant kingdom is comprised of carnivorous plants that are certainly some of the exotic and coolest plants. They are carnivorous from genius Sarracenias. Yellow pitcher plants were discovered in 1570 during the collection of the first new plants in the world by European botanists. Pitcher plants of the tropics form the largest family of the pitcher-trap plants with about 90 various species from family Nepenthaceae and order Caryophyllales. Sarracenia species are native to various parts of America. The Sarracenia habitat is permanently moist, such as swamps, riverbanks, lake edges, water springs, marl fens, boggy pine forests, and other low low-lying areas. Sarracenias are commendable plants for any Southern greenery enclosure. In spite of the fact that they are local to North America, they bring an uncommon, outlandish excellence to clammy greenery enclosure destinations with their showy blossoms and vivid flesh eating clears out.
Yellow Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia flava)
I. Organism Profile
Introduction
The plant kingdom is comprised of carnivorous plants that are certainly some of the exotic and coolest plants. An example of carnivorous plant is Yellow Pitcher Plant that is scientifically known as Sarracenia flava (Sheridan & Karowe, 2000). However, carnivory is extremely rare in the plant kingdom as the majority of the plants adapts herbivory modes of feeding. On the other side, Pitcher Plant forms the largest group of carnivorous plants in the plant kingdom with genus Sarracenia being one of the largest genera of Pitcher Plants. Sarracenias are alien-looking and very exotic plants with incredible colors and unusual leaf shapes. Again, sarracenias often make an excellent garden plant, especially in moist places, in containers, or terrarium plants. Sarracenias are a recommendable type of plants for people who are fans of growing unusual, colorful, and meat-eating plants. Sarracenias have distinctive characteristics such as their fabulous flowers, ability to get rid of harmful and unwanted pests such as insects, and unique foliage that advocate for them as a beautiful group of plants (Boyer & Carter, 2011).
Image adapted from (Boyer & Carter, 2011)
II Background
Genius Sarracenias were known since 1570 during the collection of the first new plants in the world by European botanists. In 1601, Carolus Clusius who was a botanist was amazed by the pitchers. Later in 1754, another botanist Mark Catesby discovered other Sarracenia species and noted that the hollow leaves had a role in trapping insects. However, the role of the hollow leaves remained unclear until in 1815, when James MacBride observed pitcher plants carefully and realized they trapped insects that were attracted by the nectar in the pitcher. Again, in 1870, two botanists W.M. Canby and J.H. Mellichamp observed Sarracenia plants and discovered that they secret fluids in the pitcher that hastened the decay process of the trapped insects. In 1875, Charles Darwin wrote about insectivorous plants focusing on Drosera and theory about Sarracenias as insect-eaters. Finally, in 1904, C.A. Fenner combined all the information that confirmed the sarracenias carnivorous nature. Since then, sarracenias remained popular in British and US gardens (Boyer & Carter, 2011).
The leaves of pitcher plants are cylindrical and have insect attracting properties such as sweet smell, nectar, and conspicuous color. However, it is notable that only leaves attract the insects in that pitcher that trap insects in of carnivorous plants without the moving parts. The path to the nectar has a vertical surface, and it is slippery for the insects making them slip to the bottom and fall in the pitcher with a pool of water. The trapped insect either drowns or dies of exhaustion when it tries to escape the watery trap. The inside of the pitcher contain hair pointing downward and slippery; it is difficult for the insect to climb the pitcher. Again, the pitcher has a semi-transparent window or areoles that mislead flying insects from the real exit. Once the trapped insect is dead, the pitcher excretes digestive enzymes through its specialized glands on its inner surface that liquefies that insect and the nutrient-rich is then absorbed into the leaf. The insects are a good source of phosphates and nitrates for the pitcher plants (Sheridan & Karowe, 2000).
Plants in habitat that is barren and nutrient deficient evolve and adapt carnivorous behavior, especially in swampy environments with little phosphorus, nitrogen, and acidic soils. It is important to note that carnivorous plants consume insects only to get phosphorus and nitrogen in the insect bodies. Again, pitcher trap in one of the five mechanisms of insect capturing in carnivorous plants. Other mechanisms are sticky-flypaper that suffocate and adhere to the insects, bladder traps that employ an underwater vacuum and suck the prey into the bladder known as bladderwort, bear traps that wrap around and quickly twist the prey, and corkscrew trap that employ underground structure to trap insects. All the trap mechanisms depend on enzymes and bacterial decomposition to simplify the insect into its nutrient components that the leaves absorb (Boyer & Carter, 2011). However, current science recognizes several many carnivorous plants with insect-killing structures but do not digest or absorb the insect bodies. Instead, the insect bodies fall to the ground and undergo natural decomposition to release the nutrients to the plant roots.
Image from (Boyer & Carter, 2011).
Several pitcher-related plant families have evolved pitcher traps at separate times due to their effectiveness in trapping insects. Pitcher traps are the largest of all carnivorous mechanisms of plants with some plants capable of trapping small animals such as rats and frogs. On the other hand, some pitcher plants are detritivores, meaning they consume waste products from small animals and birds that use the pitchers as toilets. Genus Sarracenia and other sub-species colonized the eastern America in the last Ice Age. The current distribution of Sarracenia species is fixed with the exception of some species such as Sarracenia purpurea following the retreat glaciers to Canada from North Carolina (Boyer & Carter, 2011).
* Morphology
Sarracenias are perennial and herbaceous plants that form clumps and grow as rosettes. The size of wild Sarracenias vary from 6 to 36 inches tall, and they multiply forming rhizomes and clumps that grow to several feet in diameter. The pitcher of Sarracenia plants is the main ornamental feature as it morphed into a hollow cone and narrow leaf with all functions including water regulation and photosynthesis a part from its adaptations of trapping the prey. Again, the pitcher has a lid that prevents filling by the rainwater and shades its opening that camouflages and makes it difficult for trapped insects to find the exit. The inside of the neck that is the attachment of the lid has nectar bait with conspicuous color and excludes the nectar so that insects climbing to the pitcher to feed on the nectar fall into the pitcher (Boyer & Carter, 2011).
The pitcher has various colors such as white, purple, green, red, and yellow in different plants. The pitcher lid is either perpendicular, parallel, held at an angle or curve over the pitcher as a dome (Sheridan & Karowe, 2000). However, the pitcher is often held vertically or lies horizontally on the ground. In the spring, some pitcher plants flush of their pitchers that fall to the ground and die back. The pitchers are dormant in the winter and quiescent in the summer. It is important to note that Sarracenia purpurea and Sarracenia psittacine are an exception of the seasonal changes as their leaves stay green for up to 18 months. Some pitcher plants produce various sizes of pitchers throughout the year. The seed pod of Sarracenia form at the top of the umbrella that is upside-down as a dry capsule that splits open and exposes up to 300 papery, small, and pear-shaped seeds. The seeds are buoyant and float away from the parent plant where they germinate after a cold stratification time (Gotelli & Ellison, 2002).
* Taxonomy. Pitcher plants of the tropics form the largest family of the pitcher-trap plants with about 90 various species from family Nepenthaceae and order Caryophyllales. The second largest in Nepenthaceae family is Sarraceniaceae of order Ericales and have about 24 types of species. However, it is important to note that the Cephalotaceae of order Oxidases is a monotypic family. Again, all the orders in the family are dicots. On the other side, there exists a monocot family, such as Bromeliaceae of order Poales. Bromeliaceae comprises of three types of plant species with pitcher traps called carnivorous bromeliads. The wide variations of the family have a similar trait of convergent evolution that is a testament to the efficient mechanism of pitcher traps (Boyer & Carter, 2011).
The genus Sarracenia has eight different species, 20 sub-specific variants or variety of subspecies, 17 hybrids that are naturally occurring variants, and several artificial hybrids. “Trumpet pitcher plant” is a common name for plants of the genus Sarracenia. Again, other plants of the Sarraceniaceae family are the same in a form such as "marsh pitcher plants" in genus Heliamphora and genus Darlingtonia that are monotypic, grows in Cali...