Sarracenia purpurea

Purple pitcher plant

The most widespread and cold-hardy North American pitcher plant. It ranges from the Carolinas and Georgia to Newfoundland, Labrador and across Canada to British Columbia, with the northern subsp. purpurea in glaciated regions and subsp. venosa on the unglaciated southern coastal plain. It grows in open, sunny sphagnum bogs, poor fens and seepage wetlands, and its squat, rain-filled pitchers last up to two years. It needs full sun, permanently wet nutrient-poor peat or live sphagnum, pure water, and a real cold winter dormancy.

Sarracenia purpurea — Photo: Shipguy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

At home, aim for

Day Cool-growingTargets in Plantistry

Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry

Humidity Ordinary room humidityBand in Plantistry

Light Full sunDLI and PPFD in Plantistry

Expects a seasonal restGrows in the ground

Where it grows wild

A ground-hugging rosette in open sphagnum bogs, poor fens, floating peat mats around lakes, seepage swamps and, in the south, wet pine savannas. Soils are acidic, permanently wet and very poor in nutrients. The upright pitchers collect rainwater and host a whole food web of mosquito and midge larvae, mites and microbes.

Mostly lowland bogs and fens, but it reaches the mountain bogs of the southern Appalachians (the var. montana form). Few records carry an elevation.

Canada: Newfoundland and Labrador to British Columbia, north to the Northwest TerritoriesUSA: Great Lakes states and MinnesotaUSA: Northeast and New EnglandUSA: Mid-Atlantic coastal plain (New Jersey to Virginia)USA: Carolinas and Georgia

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates

✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it

✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light

✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it

✓ Substrate and airflow

✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its Public domain licence, unmodified.