Sarracenia alata (Alph.Wood) Alph.Wood
Pale Pitcher Plant, Yellow trumpets, pale pitcherplant, pitcherplant
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Sarracenia alata, also known as yellow trumpets, pale pitcher plant or pale trumpet, is a carnivorous plant in the genus Sarracenia. Specifically, S. alata is an endemic species to North America; it is native to the southeastern regions of the United States, including parts of the Gulf Coast states.
Text from Wikipedia, “Sarracenia alata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Sarracenia
Sarracenia is a genus comprising 8 to 11 species of North American pitcher plants, commonly called trumpet pitchers. The genus belongs to the family Sarraceniaceae, which also contain the closely allied genera Darlingtonia and Heliamphora.
Text from Wikipedia, “Sarracenia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Sarracenia alata f. viridescens S.Mc Pherson & D.E.Schnell; Sarracenia alata var. atrorubra S.Mc Pherson & D.E.Schnell; Sarracenia alata var. cuprea S.Mc Pherson & D.E.Schnell; Sarracenia alata var. nigropurpurea S.Mc Pherson & D.E.Schnell; Sarracenia alata var. ornata S.Mc Pherson & D.E.Schnell and 8 more.
Cultivation
Grouped as a carnivorous plant by the genus Sarracenia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.
Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (December to March and May to August in the northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1190 mm of 1660 mm) takes 8 months, December to March and May to August. Mean temperature moves 17.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to February and June to September.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 1660 mm a year, wettest July at 172 mm, driest October at 104 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1660 mm a year at the habitat, 1190 mm of it December to March and May to August. Wettest month July at 172 mm, driest October at 104 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1354 mm to 1813 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 40 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor -3.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -3.3 °C, the absolute minimum -12.0 °C, about 13 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells 5.2 °C to 8.1 °C), warmest day 32.3 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 15 / 15–16 | 17 / 16–18 | 21 / 19–21 | 25 / 23–25 | 29 / 27–29 | 31 / 30–32 | 32 / 31–34 | 32 / 30–34 | 30 / 29–31 | 26 / 25–26 | 21 / 20–21 | 16 / 15–17 |
| Night °C | 6 / 5–8 | 8 / 7–10 | 11 / 10–13 | 15 / 14–17 | 19 / 18–21 | 22 / 22–24 | 24 / 23–25 | 24 / 23–25 | 21 / 21–23 | 16 / 15–18 | 11 / 11–14 | 8 / 6–10 |
| Rain mm | 134 / 111–149 | 144 / 106–156 | 149 / 106–162 | 119 / 93–128 | 126 / 116–141 | 163 / 125–186 | 172 / 92–205 | 156 / 82–196 | 125 / 93–153 | 104 / 89–127 | 122 / 106–143 | 146 / 126–159 |
| DLI | 18 / 18–19 | 23 / 22–24 | 30 / 28–31 | 37 / 35–38 | 40 / 38–41 | 39 / 39–40 | 38 / 38–40 | 35 / 35–38 | 32 / 31–32 | 27 / 26–27 | 21 / 19–22 | 17 / 16–18 |
| RH % | 59 / 59–60 | 59 / 58–60 | 59 / 58–60 | 59 / 57–60 | 60 / 59–62 | 62 / 60–63 | 63 / 59–64 | 63 / 58–64 | 60 / 57–61 | 58 / 57–59 | 58 / 58–59 | 59 / 59–60 |
Each figure is the median across the 142 grid cells holding the 184 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1186:1817 (30.675, -89.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -12.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 142 distinct grid cells holding the 184 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1186:1817 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 30.50_-89.375, lapse-corrected +19 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 47 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Reid Hardin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).
Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Sarracenia alata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Sarracenia psittacina parrot pitcherplant
Sarracenia rosea Burk's southern pitcher plant
Sarracenia leucophylla Purple Trumpet-leaf
Pinguicula primuliflora Primrose Butterwort
Stokesia laevis Stokes' aster
Rhododendron austrinum Florida azaleaOther Sarracenia 9 in the reference
Sarracenia flava Trumpets
Sarracenia jonesii Jones' pitcherplant
Sarracenia leucophylla Purple Trumpet-leaf
Sarracenia minor hooded pitcherplant
Sarracenia oreophila green pitcher-plant
Sarracenia psittacina parrot pitcherplant
Sarracenia purpurea Hollow-leaved Lavender
Sarracenia rosea Burk's southern pitcher plant
Sarracenia rubra red pitcherplant History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 37 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








