The Carnivorous Pitcher Plant

Newfoundland's Official Provincial Flower Emblem.

Although it was not declared the provincial flower of Newfoundland and Labrador until 1954, this strange plant appeared on the Newfoundland penny during the late 1880s.

The pitcher plant (Sarracenia Purpurea) is found primarily in bogs and marshland throughout the Newfoundland. It has a large wine-red flower with a red and gold centre, and hollow pitcher-shaped leaves attached to the base of the stem.

Along with the Venus Flytrap, cobra orchid, sundew, bladderworts, and Asian Nepenthes, the pitcher plant of Newfoundland is one of a select few plants that are insectivorous. An insectivorous plant captures prey items, such as insects and spiders as a nitrogen source. Many insectivorous species live in freshwater bogs, where nitrogen is not present in available form, because the pH of the water is extremely acid.

Prey are lured and deceived to enter the pitcher, a cylindrical, modified leaf, and then cannot escape, usually due to downward-pointing hairs, which causes victims to fall into the liquid below containing digestive enzymes.

The pitcher plant has "protected species" status in Newfoundland.