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The hectad distribution of Sarracenia purpurea in Great Britain and Ireland. Solid circles represent squares with extant populations with post-2000 records; 'X' represent squares with populations that have been eradicated; open circles represent hectads with old records.
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Sarracenia purpurea subsp. purpurea is a North American carnivorous plant that has been deliberately planted on lowland bogs and mires throughout Britain and Ireland since the late nineteenth century. Since then, established populations have been reported from 38 sites where it has often been conserved for ‘scientific’ reasons. Although there are n...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... occupies the greater part of the species' range in North America occurring in bogs, poor fens, and seepage mires extending northwards from Delaware to sub-Arctic Canada (McPherson & Schnell, 2011). Consequently it is well-adapted to the climate of north-western Europe, in particular the more oceanic regions of Great Britain and Ireland ( Fig. 1) but it has also been reported from a small numbers of sites in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland (see references above). On some of these sites it has displayed fast population growth and an ability to outcompete native bog vegetation (Feldmeyer, 1985;Foss & O'Connell, 1985), as in ...
Context 2
... S. purpurea was in cultivation at Kew before 1640 it was not recorded in the wild until 1892 when a specimen was collected from a raised bog near to Lisduff in Ireland (Foss & O'Connell, 1985). Since then it has been recorded from 38 sites (Table 1) in 36 hectads across the British Isles ( Fig. 1). At 13 of these sites it is no longer present, including nine sites where it has been manually removed (Table 1). At present, it is known certainly to survive at 21 sites; at four others its status is uncertain. Of these, the three largest account for over 95% of the entire population; by comparison, twelve sites support fewer than ...
Citations
... In this study, we investigated the culturable endophyte community from traps of ve species of carnivorous plant growing in the United Kingdom, at two in-situ sites and greenhouse grown: Drosera rotundifolia, D. anglica, Pinguicula vulgaris, Dionaea muscipula, and Sarracenia purpurea. These species represent different trapping mechanisms ( ypaper traps: D. rotundifolia, D. anglica, and P. vulgaris; Pitfall: S. purpurea; Snap trap: D. muscipula), native (D. rotundifolia, D. anglica, and P. vulgaris) and introduced (S. purpurea, Walker, 2014) species. We used culture-dependant methods to isolate fungi endophytically colonising trap tissues and sequencing of ITS region to identify isolated fungi. ...
... Sarracenia purpurea is distributed across eastern North America where it grows primarily on raised bogs. The species was introduced to Europe from North America in the nineteenth century (Walker 2014), where it is naturalised and can be locally invasive but does not spread from site to site. One study has investigated the fungal endophytes of Sarracenia in North America (Glenn and Bodri 2012), using culturing methods. ...
Fungal endophytes are ubiquitous plant symbionts existing asymptomatically inside plant tissues but playing a crucial role in plant health and function. Endophytes have been extensively studied in many plants, such as agricultural systems, but in carnivorous plants which may engage microbes to aid in digestion, they are poorly understood. To address this deficiency, this study aims to assess the presence and host specificity of fungal endophytes in carnivorous plant traps. Five carnivorous plant species were sampled from two in-situ sites and greenhouse grown plants.
Fungal endophytes were isolated from the traps of five carnivorous plant species: Drosera rotundifolia, Drosera anglica, Pinguicula vulgaris, Dionaea muscipula, and Sarracenia purpurea. These represent a range of trapping mechanisms, native and introduced species. We included different carnivorous plant species growing at the same site, and the same species at different sites to test for host and site specificity. Endophytes were cultured on malt extract agar and identified by sequencing the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. The isolated fungal endophytes were composed of species from common Ascomycota genera (Alternaria, Cladosporium, Colletotrichum, and Didymocyrtis).
Fungal endophytes were present in all plant species, this expands our understanding of endophyte distribution in carnivorous plants, representing the first endophytes isolated from D. anglica and D. muscipula and the first endophytes from the traps of D. rotundifolia and P. vulgaris, along with five new fungal endophyte species in carnivorous plants. There was some host specificity; S. purpurea was the only host plant with Colletotrichum spp., whereas Alternaria spp. were found across multiple hosts and sites. The trap endophytes cultured here differed to root endophytes of Drosera and Pinguicula found in previous studies of plants at the same site, suggesting that above and below ground endophytes may differ, perhaps offering different functions in separate plant tissues.
... Sarracenia purpurea subsp. purpurea has been deliberately introduced into intact peatlands at more than 100 sites in Europe, including the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic, and also to a few sites in Japan and New Zealand (Parisod et al. 2005;Adlassnig et al. 2010;Walker 2014). At many of these sites especially in England and Ireland, it has become an invasive species, self-reproducing and spreading by seeds (Parisod et al. 2005;Adlassnig et al. 2010;Walker 2014;pers. ...
... purpurea has been deliberately introduced into intact peatlands at more than 100 sites in Europe, including the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic, and also to a few sites in Japan and New Zealand (Parisod et al. 2005;Adlassnig et al. 2010;Walker 2014). At many of these sites especially in England and Ireland, it has become an invasive species, self-reproducing and spreading by seeds (Parisod et al. 2005;Adlassnig et al. 2010;Walker 2014;pers. obs.), and with a repeatedly documented negative impact on the abundance and composition of native bog flora, including native CPs such as Drosera rotundifolia (Trippi 2006;Adlassnig et al. 2010;Walker 2014;Walker et al. 2016). ...
... At many of these sites especially in England and Ireland, it has become an invasive species, self-reproducing and spreading by seeds (Parisod et al. 2005;Adlassnig et al. 2010;Walker 2014;pers. obs.), and with a repeatedly documented negative impact on the abundance and composition of native bog flora, including native CPs such as Drosera rotundifolia (Trippi 2006;Adlassnig et al. 2010;Walker 2014;Walker et al. 2016). Therefore, S. purpurea has recently been added to the blacklist of invasive species in a few European countries such as the UK, Switzerland, and Germany (Nehring et al. 2013;Walker et al. 2016) which includes the direction for its removal from bogs where it had been naturalized (Parisod et al. 2005;Walker et al. 2016;Chatters 2020). ...
Carnivorous plants and their unique habitats face various threats, most of them being an-thropogenic. About 25% of the known 860 carnivorous plant species are threatened or face extinction. Two of the threats are predominantly caused by "carnivorous plant lovers". The actions include 1) sale and trade of plants that have been illegally collected from the wild, a threat that has continuously increased in the past years and 2) planting of exotic carnivorous plant species into pristine habitats of native species. This article illustrates these problems and shows causal connections and the legal situation, which are apparently not known to everyone. A long-term solution can only be found if carnivorous plant lovers recognize and stop their misconduct. This article aims at closing knowledge gaps and to inform about the problem of threats to wild carnivorous plant populations by carnivorous plant lovers.
... On the other hand, representatives of these groups are often present as ornamental houseplants throughout Europe (e.g., Kitching 2000). The natural area of distribution of Sarracenia purpurea L. is limited to the eastern part of the USA and Canada (Juniper et al. 1989) where it grows on low-nutrient soils in boggy locations, but allochthonous populations have been reported from Britain and Ireland (Walker 2014), Sweden (Almborn 1983), Switzerland (Marabini 1994;Parisod et al. 2005), and Germany (Marabini 1994;Fürsch 2001;Gebühr et al. 2006). The pitchers of this carnivorous plant are formed in tubular leaves that work as passive pitfall traps, even though at least one species produces attractant substances (Miles et al. 1975). ...
Pitcher plants provide temporal aquatic habitats, known as phytotelmata, which can be colonized by aquatic invertebrates. In this study, we tested, if phytotelma provided by an exotic pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea L. could be colonized by native aquatic organisms. Thus, we exposed three plants to natural conditions for three months from June to August in E Slovakia and sampled the contained water in monthly intervals. As many as 15 taxa of the groups Rotatoria, Ciliophora, Flagellata, Nematoda, Tardigrada, and Diptera colonized the phytotelmata. The Rotifera species belonged to Lecane bulla (Gosse 1851), L. inermis (Bryce 1892), and Colurella obtusa (Gosse 1886). Dipterans were represented by families Ceratopogonidae, Chironomidae, Psychodidae, and Sciomyzidae. The results confirmed that phytotelmata provided by non-native plant species can potentially be colonized by native aquatic organisms, even though some microorganisms could have been remains of a previous colonization.
... Sarracenia purpurea has been deliberately introduced at over 100 sites across North West Europe (including Sweden, Switzerland, France, Germany, UK and Ireland), and at a small number of sites in Japan and New Zealand (Adlassnig et al. 2010;Pyšek et al. 2012). On some of these sites S. purpurea has become invasive reducing the abundance of native vascular plants and bryophytes (Walker 2014). The commercial availability of S. purpurea has increased in Europe within recent years, with it now being readily available within the horticulture trade, including garden centers. ...
... Three populations of S. purpurea were chosen across Great Britain and Ireland to provide a wide geographical spread: one in northern England (Cumbria), one in southern England (Dorset) and one in the Republic of Ireland (Offaly) (Figure 1, Table 1). These populations were chosen as S. purpurea was introduced more than twenty years ago making the populations well established and regenerating within each site (Walker 2014). Sampling was undertaken during August 2019. ...
... The North American Sarracenia, particularly S. purpurea subsp. purpurea, has been introduced and naturalised at a number of locations across Europe (e.g., Adlassnig et al., 2010;Walker, 2014), becoming an invasive neophyte at several locations (Walker et al., 2016). Naturalised populations of Dionaea muscipula are known from the Apalachicola Forest in Florida (Schnell, 2002) where they were deliberately sown by a local CP grower in the early 1970s (Miller, 2019). ...
Carnivorous plants (CPs)—those possessing specific strategies to attract, capture and kill animal prey and obtain nutrition through the absorption of their biomass—are harbingers of anthropogenic degradation and destruction of ecosystems. CPs exhibit highly specialised and often very sensitive ecologies, being generally restricted to nutrient-impoverished habitats where carnivory offers a competitive advantage. As such, they are often the first species to disappear following habitat degradation, land use change, and alteration to natural ecological processes, and are at significant risk from processes such as eutrophication and weed invasion, and even poorly-understood impacts such as airborne nitrogen inputs. Many of the world’s 860 species of CPs are found in wetland habitats, which represent some of the most cleared and heavily degraded ecosystems on Earth. Global diversity hotspots for CPs are likewise located in some of the most heavily cleared and disturbed areas of the planet—southwestern Western Australia, Southeast Asia, Mediterranean Europe, central eastern Brazil, and the southeastern United States—placing their conservation at odds with human developmental interests. Many carnivorous plant species exhibit extreme range-restriction and are wholly localised to specific geological formations, microhabitats or elevations, with nowhere to move to in the face of environmental change such as a warming, drying climate. We provide the first systematic examination of the conservation status and threats to all CPs globally, compiling full or partial assessments of conservation status category for 860 species from 18 genera, and provide ten recommendations towards better conservation and management of this iconic group. A total of 69 species were assessed as Critically Endangered (8% of all species), 47 as Endangered (6%), 104 as Vulnerable (12%), and 23 as Near Threatened (3%). Slightly over 60% of CPs (521 species) were assessed as Least Concern. At least 89 species are known from only a single location based on current knowledge. Data on threatening processes were available for 790 species, with the most common threatening processes including Agriculture and Aquaculture (impacting 170 species), Natural Systems Modifications (168 species), Climate Change and Severe Weather (158 species), Energy Production and Mining (127 species), Human Intrusions and Disturbance (126 species), and Biological Resource Use (98 species). Almost a quarter of all species were impacted upon by three or more threatening processes. The most significant threats placing species at imminent risk of extinction include the continuing clearing of natural habitat for urban and agricultural development and the illegal collection of individuals from the wild for horticultural trade. The complex and specialised ecological requirements of CPs, together with the multifaceted threats they face, make conservation difficult and repatriation even to restored areas challenging. As the number of vulnerable, endangered and extinct carnivorous plant species continues to grow, despite significant conservation efforts in many regions and greater awareness of their ecological requirements, it is clear that a paradigm shift is required in our approach to the preservation of this unique group of plants in order to achieve long-term conservation successes.
... Drosera species are often grown by hobbyists around the globe, and an intentional introduction could be also an alternative. This is not rare as there are a few examples of carnivorous plants being intentionally introduced in other areas (Parisod et al., 2005;Jobson & Conn, 2012;Walker, 2014). ...
Drosera L. (Droseraceae) is a genus of insectivorous plants distributed worldwide with 240 species, 40 of which are found in South America. In the temperate forests of Chile and Argentina the only species present is D. uniflora. In a peat bog in Nahuel Huapi National Park, Argentina, a new species of Drosera was found in February 2018. To identify the species, we used morphological characters, and in addition, we sequenced two individuals for the nuclear region ITS and the chloroplast gene rbcL. Other Drosera sequences for these molecular regions were downloaded from GenBank, and a phylogenetic analysis was done to confirm the morphological identification of the Patagonian individuals. Morphologically and genetically, the species found in Nahuel Huapi is D. rotundifolia, a mostly Northern Hemisphere species. This is an alien species to the region and is thought to have been transported to the bog by tourists that visit the area. The presence of an exotic species represents a threat to this particular ecosystem with high conservation value. Currently, the National Park is taking control actions order to remove all individuals of the recently detected species. This study represents the first report of an alien species of Drosera in southern South America growing in the wild. This potentially invasive species may not only have negative impacts on the natural peat bog habitats in southern Argentina and Chile, but may also reach bogs in other temperate parts of the world.
... The natural range of S. purpurea extends from Florida to subarctic Canada, in nutrient-limited areas (Kneitel & Miller, 2002). However, S. purpurea has been frequently introduced in Britain, Ireland and central Europe from escaped ornamentals and deliberate planting in bog areas, and displays invasive characteristics in certain areas of central Europe due to its frost-hardy nature (Adlassnig, Mayer, Peroutka, Pois, & Lichtsheidl, 2010;Walker, 2014;Zander, Gravel, Bersier, & Gray, 2016). Sarracenia purpurea is a particularly interesting case for the study of elevation gradients as the plant is allochthonous in the Alps, and thus, it has not undergone long-term adaptation to the environment. ...
Resource variation along abiotic gradients influences subsequent trophic interactions and these effects can be transmitted through entire food webs. Interactions along abiotic gradients can provide clues as to how organisms will face changing environmental conditions, such as future range shifts. However, it is challenging to find replicated systems to study these effects. Phytotelmata, such as those found in carnivorous plants, are isolated aquatic communities and thus form a good model for the study of replicated food webs. Due to the degraded nature of the prey, molecular techniques provide a useful tool to study these communities. We studied the pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea L. in allochthonous populations along an elevational gradient in the Alps and Jura. We predicted that invertebrate richness in the contents of the pitcher plants would decrease with increasing elevation, reflecting harsher environmental conditions. Using metabarcoding of the COI gene, we sequenced the invertebrate contents of these pitcher plants. We assigned Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units at ordinal level as well as recovering species‐level data. We found small but significant changes in community composition with elevation. These recovered sequences could belong to invertebrate prey, rotifer inquilines, pollinators and other animals possibly living inside the pitchers. However, we found no directional trend or site‐based differences in MOTU richness with elevational gradient. Use of molecular techniques for dietary or contents analysis is a powerful way to examine numerous degraded samples, although factors such as DNA persistence and the relationship to species presence still have to be completely determined.
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... Plants from the Sarraceniaceae are not native to the British Isles (Walker 2014). Nevertheless, several introduced populations of the Northern pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) have become established in Europe including in Switzerland, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Ireland and England (Foss and O'Connell 1985;Parisod et al. 2005;Gebühr et al. 2006;IPCC 2009;BBC News 2012;Pyšek et al. 2012;Sanderson 2012;Long 2013;Walker 2014). ...
... Plants from the Sarraceniaceae are not native to the British Isles (Walker 2014). Nevertheless, several introduced populations of the Northern pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) have become established in Europe including in Switzerland, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Ireland and England (Foss and O'Connell 1985;Parisod et al. 2005;Gebühr et al. 2006;IPCC 2009;BBC News 2012;Pyšek et al. 2012;Sanderson 2012;Long 2013;Walker 2014). Sarracenia purpurea is native to North American wetlands, and the climate in the British Isles is within its adaptive range (Walker 2014). ...
... Nevertheless, several introduced populations of the Northern pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) have become established in Europe including in Switzerland, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Ireland and England (Foss and O'Connell 1985;Parisod et al. 2005;Gebühr et al. 2006;IPCC 2009;BBC News 2012;Pyšek et al. 2012;Sanderson 2012;Long 2013;Walker 2014). Sarracenia purpurea is native to North American wetlands, and the climate in the British Isles is within its adaptive range (Walker 2014). Sarracenia purpurea has been established in Irish peat lands since at least 1906 (Foss and O'Connell 1985), populations were reported in 10 peat land sites around Ireland in 2009 and are considered as a concern to wetland conservation (IPCC 2009). ...
Invasive carnivorous plant species can impact the native invertebrate communities on which they prey. This article explores the predation of native UK bumblebees (Bombus spp.) by the invasive pitcher plant species Sarracenia purpurea and discusses the potential effect of S. purpurea on native bumblebees. Specifically, it evaluates whether the extent to which bumblebees are captured varies (i) over successive years, (ii) across June and July, (iii) with density of distribution of pitchers or (iv) with bumblebee gender. Pitcher contents were examined from an established population of Sarracenia purpurea growing in Dorset, UK. Results show that the total extent to which bumblebees were captured differed over the years 2012–2014 inclusive. A 1-year study in 2013 showed that more bumblebees were caught in July than in June and more bumblebees were captured when pitchers grew at high density. Results from 2013 also showed that more pitchers caught more than one bumblebee than would be expected based on a normal probability distribution and that this phenomenon affects female and male bumblebees equally. We discuss possible reasons for these results including that the bumblebees may be using S. purpurea as a resource. Further work is required to establish the exact underpinning mechanisms and the relative roles of plant and bumblebee behaviour within the relationship. Such interaction complexity may have consequences for consideration in invasive carnivorous plant management.
... The largest population of S. purpurea in Great Britain occurs on a lowland raised mire at Wedholme Flow in Northern England where it is thought to have been deliberately planted, possibly with material brought from Ireland, in the 1940s (Mawby, 1996;Walker, 2014). During the 1990s the number of plants increased dramatically leading to concerns that it may have been adversely affecting associated species (Mawby, 1996). ...
... However, the seeds are buoyant and can be dispersed much further by hydrochory. Observations from British sites suggest that S. purpurea forms a short-term seedbank with recruitment persisting for up to five years following the removal of seed-bearing plants (Walker, 2014). ...
... Ailanthus altissima, Meloche & Murphy 2006;Alliaria petiolata, Shartell, Nagel, & Storer, 2012). These findings support earlier assertions that hand-pulling is only likely to be effective where populations are small and recruitment is low (Walker, 2014). The eradication of large populations (as in this study) using hand-pulling alone is likely to be far more challenging and will require the complete removal of all flowering plants, ideally prior to seed-set, over many years if it is to have a chance of success. ...
Pitcherplant Sarracenia purpurea is a North American carnivorous plant that has become invasive on mires throughout Europe. It appears to have limited dispersal ability and so eradication may be feasible given early detection and effective control. We used a field experiment to assess the effectiveness of three control methods – hand-pulling, spot-spraying with glyphosate, and turf-stripping – on the largest established population of S. purpurea in Great Britain. After one year all three treatments had significantly reduced the abundance and flowering performance of S. purpurea. Turf-stripping was the most effective technique but had the greatest impact on non-target species. Spot-spraying and hand-pulling caused significant reductions in adults with only a small reduction in associated species diversity. However, hand-pulling significantly increased the numbers of seedlings and juveniles due to increased recruitment and competitive release following the removal of adults. Spot-spraying caused some damage to associated species but this was not significant. In conclusion, spot-spraying with glyphosate provides the most cost-effective method for eradicating S. purpurea but needs to be carried out with great care to avoid damaging sensitive mire ecosystems. Hand-pulling offers a more labour intensive alternative but its success will rely on monitoring for at least four years to ensure that the recruitment of juveniles is exhausted. Turf-stripping is unlikely to be an acceptable technique given the global importance of mire ecosystems invaded by S. purpurea in Europe.
... invasion of shrub species that could not persist in saturated soils. It may also be locally threatened by introduced invasive species such as Sarracenia purpurea(Walker 2014). Undrained and infertile habitats were once fairly widespread across much of England, but in the period 1930-1999 this species declined in distribution (AOO) by 48% and in range (EOO) by 62%. ...
The results detailed in this vascular plant Red List present for the first time the current state of England’s flora measured against standardised IUCN criteria. Almost one in five species has been assessed as threatened, with many more species assessed as ‘Near Threatened’. The destruction and transformation of semi-natural habitats across the English landscape since the publication of the first Atlas of the British Flora (Perring & Walters 1962) is well known, and these changes are mirrored not only in the long list of taxa assessed as threatened in England but also in the decline in distribution by 20% or more of a suite of ‘Near Threatened’ species, some of which were previously assumed to be widespread and with relatively stable distributions. The strategic approach advocated by Lawton et al. (2010) to restore, create and connect extant habitats at the landscape scale is essential if the declines identified in this and other Red Lists are to be arrested. Such an approach demands long- term commitment, considerable resources and a recognition of the benefits to be gained from a more diverse and adaptable environment.
