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Ericales | Ericales
Heideachtigen | Ericales
A broad order containing the heathers, primroses, tea, Brazil nut and kiwifruit. Many of its members live on acid, nutrient-poor ground and work with root fungi to do so. Carnivory arose twice in this order, in two neighbouring families. This guide covers the first of them, the American pitcher plants, with pitfall traps formed from a rolled leaf; the second, the South African Roridula, does not digest its prey itself and therefore falls outside what this guide includes.
Families in this order
- New World pitcher plant family | Sarraceniaceae33 speciesThree genera, all American and all with pitchers formed from a rolled leaf: the trumpet pitchers of North America, the cobra lily of California and Oregon, and the sun pitchers on the table mountains of the Guiana Highlands. The build of the pitcher differs widely — a straight trumpet, an inflated hood with a forked tongue, or a plain tube with a drainage slit — but the principle is always the same.