Recall that a _Sarracenia_ inflorescence consists of an erect, terete
peduncle with a (usually nodding) single flower. Three small (about 5 mm
long) bracts lay against five persistent sepals. Five petals and many
anthers surround the superior ovary which has a large umbrella shaped
style. The style's umbrella portion is 5-lobed, the tip of each lobe bears
a receptive stigmatic surface.
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_S.leucophylla_---the double flowered variant
Peduncle: normal, terete.
Bracts: 3, but only one is normal. The other two are slightly mutated.
One is 1.5 cm long, deltoid, the other is 1.8 cm long, cuneate.
Sepals: 5, normally shaped although possibly slightly uneven.
Petals and anthers: details unknown as the flower examined was a few months
post-anthesis.
Ovary: superior, a distorted and slightly shrunken convoluted mass of
tissue with several folds and ridges, fused with a few dried membranes
resembling dead but persistent petals. Cross-sections revealed further
internal mutations. The ovary wall was incompletely formed, and whether
any specific bit of tissue was ovary wall, septum, or combination was
difficult to determine. No locules were completely sealed---all had
imperfections and lapses in the ovary walls. A few ovules were seen,
but none with fertile seed.
Style: from distal tip of ovary extended 4 separate appendages,
approximately 3 cm long, of the same texture as the style of a normal
flower. Each was lobed into 2--3 main irregular portions, some bearing
a large winglike central ridge. Two of the appendages bear, as one of
the main irregular portions, a filiform branch which expands to an
obcordate end. The center of the obcordate end is a tiny knob, no doubt
the receptive stigmatic surface (vestigial?). A fifth filiform appendage,
much smaller than the other four, extends from the distal tip of the ovary
1.5 cm, then loops back and reconnects to the ovary.
>From communications with Andrew Marshall, it seems there are about 10
petals, some may be mutated anthers. The style is interesting, and I
interpret each of the 5 appendages to be modified stigmatic lobes.
The appendages are very complicated and variable in shape, but if you
imagine the fertile leaves of a _Platycerium_ you have the basic idea.
Andrew tells me that all flowers from this plant are similarly mutated,
but that the leaves are not affected. It is not at all clear to me that
the mutation is genetic---I am considering the possibility that the
mutation is viral. Since the mutation renders the plant sterile
I think care should be taken to isolate it from the rest of your plants
should you grow it.
Barry