by Cate House

n a field trip to the North Carolina Botanical Garden, my fourth-grade class watched, fascinated, as a fly disappeared down the long, sticky neck of a pitcher plant. "There's no way out," the tour guide said.

Fourth graders aren't the only ones intrigued by carnivorous plants. Collectors have been gathering them from the wild for years. So have nurseries. Because carnivorous plants such as the pitcher plant (Sarracenia), are slow growers, many nurseries don't want to take the time to grow them. So until recently, almost every pitcher plant on the market was taken from the wild. Rob Gardner, curator of native plants at the North Carolina Botanical Garden (NCBG), explains that in the time it takes to produce a crop of pitcher plants in a nursery, several crops of something else can be grown.

Unfortunately, mass collecting and a loss of their natural habitats has seriously depleted many pitcher-plant populations. Some researchers estimate that 80 to 90 percent of the pitcher plant's habitat has been destroyed, mostly because of development, agriculture, and tree farming.

Native to the southeastern U.S., pitcher plants grow best in savannah-type habitats with highly acidic soil, lots of sunlight, and a high water table. In North Carolina, pitcher plants are most prevalent along the coastal plain, though some can be found in isolated places throughout the piedmont and lower-altitude mountain ranges. Because acidic soil tends to be lower in nutrients than other soils, many researchers think that carnivorous plants have evolved a capacity to supplement their diet by capturing some of their food. "Insects are like vitamin pills for these plants," Gardner says.

As curator, Gardner is interested in the conservation of native plants, which is one of the main missions of NCBG. There are state and federal laws protecting certain species of pitcher plants, but it's not enough, Gardner says. To relieve some of the pressure on the wild pitcher-plant population, Gardner has developed a breeding program with Larry Mellichamp, director of UNC-Charlotte Botanic Gardens. Together, they've been working to produce their own varieties—hybrids—of pitcher plants.

Next: "The breeding potential....is virtually infinite."

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