***NY- Vulnerable***

    Pitcher Plants are a wonderfully unique group of carnivorous plants that, although native to New York, are uncommon and declining.  The leaves are highly modified into a vase-like structure that holds and traps water.  The insects find thier way into the plant and drown in the water inside. The inside of the leaves are lined with down-pointing hairs that keep trapped insects from escaping.  They are then slowly digested in the acidic water inside.  All of this is an adaption to obtaining nutrients in the nutrient poor bogs in which the plants are found.  The flowers are very large and tall, standing on stalks up to two feet tall.  The flowers themselves are two inches in diameter.  Pitcher Plants are another species protected because of the demands placed on them by humans and are vulnerable to exploitation.  They require sphagnum bogs to grow and reproduce and thus are ill suited for a household plant.  There are many tropical pitcher plants that do well indoors and are cultivated for hardiness and color.  It is better to buy one of these than collect a wild pitcher plant ill-suited to captivity.